Piecekeeping
by Ari Moriarty
Summary: SEQUEL to "Bondswoman." Six months after the defeat of the snake shadow, the members of the investigation team are back together again, ready to find a solution, once and for all, to the problem of the Velvet Room shadows. While Yosuke tries to learn what it really means to be a leader, Nanako faces some unpleasant truths about the nature of the adult world.
1. Prologue - December 16

**Author's Note: **Welcome back to Inaba, for round three! Wow, really, round three already? I hope you are all having as much fun with this as I am! That might be hard, though…as I am having a really good time.

Sorry it took so long for me to update this chapter. I'm not sure exactly why, but for some reason I was struggling with the dialogue. Hopefully that's all sorted now.  
Remember, this is a direct sequel to **Bondswoman**, so if you haven't read that, you may want to go back and do so before tackling this one. It won't make a lot of sense without the first two stories

There's also a spin-off to this story, **Messiah**, which features Adachi x Minako, the trainwreck pairing introduced in **Bondswoman**, which even I can't figure out why I hate to love and love to hate. If you're interested, go ahead and check it out, but if that's not your thing, then please don't. There will be plenty for you to read right here without having to force yourself through that story.

Okay, enough talk. Here we go again!

**Prologue – December 16**

It was snowing, although even Nanako had to admit that the snow was disappointing. It wasn't beautiful, light, fluffy snow that fell to the ground and turned into a pretty white blanket. Instead, it was big, lumpy, slushy snow that made a weird little "thud" noise when it hit, and almost immediately melted away. For the first snow of the year, this was a little bit of a letdown.

Nanako was waiting in the food court when Kanji, Rise, Naoto and Teddie came out of the electronics department together, looking tired, but triumphant.

"Today's patrol is complete, Nanako-chan," announced Naoto, pulling up a chair at Nanako's table. "All shadows have been accounted for and eliminated. There is no immediate danger."

"Yeah," said Kanji. "We did have to take out this crazy squid shadow thing, though."

Rise shook her head. "That's the third time this month!" she reminded them. "What's with the squids? Naoto, what do squids mean? Do they stand for something, or…?"

Naoto, for once, seemed a little bit out of her depth. ""Honestly," she admitted, "I…I have no idea."

For the last six months, ever since Yu had gone back to his parents' house, and Yosuke, Chie, and Yukiko had left for college, Nanako and the others had been taking turns going on patrols inside the Velvet Room, checking their friends' minds for shadows, and defeating any shadows they found. So far, they'd been successful in keeping both minds free of any sort of real trouble, which Nanako hoped was helping her Big Bro enjoy his last year of high school. Minako, whom Nanako saw almost every day, was already definitely feeling better because of it, and that gave Nanako a little bit more confidence that she was finally and truly making a difference for her Big Bro after all.

"Hey," asked Kanji. "What time is it? The train's coming at noon, right?"

"According to the timetables we located," confirmed Naoto, "they are due to arrive just after twelve o'clock. As it is almost eleven thirty five now, we still have some time before we will need to head over to the station."

"Yeah, well, I don't wanna be late," grumbled Kanji. "How much would that suck, them coming back home after six months away, only to get here and realize that nobody showed p to meet them?"

Rise patted Kanji comforting on his muscular shoulder. "We'll be there," she assured him. "Relax."

"Hey," asked Teddie suddenly, glancing around the food court. "Where's Mina-chan? Wasn't she supposed to come with us to meet Sensei?"

Nanako bit her lip. "Um," she said, "I don't know!" That wasn't exactly a lie, she told herself. After all, she really didn't know where Minako was. It was just that she knew more about who Minako had been with than any of the others. Still, that wasn't what Teddie had asked, was it? Somehow, she felt like it was probably better to keep this one a secret, just for now. Minako would probably be happier if she did.

"Well," began Kanji, "we're not gonna wait for-!"

"Hey! Guys!" As if on cue, Minako came rushing into the food court, stumbling and blinking, looking exhausted. Her hair was inexplicable hanging around her shoulders, something that Nanako had never seen before. Actually, thought Nanako, before she could stop herself, Minako's hair looked terrible. It was matted, wet, and sticky, covered in snow and clearly un-brushed.

"Um," mumbled Nanako, "are…you okay?"

Minako glanced over in Nanako's direction with a sightless look that said, very clearly, "We will talk about this later." Nanako swallowed uncomfortably.

"Am I too late?" asked Minako breathlessly. "I didn't miss them, did I?"

"Whoa, relax!" insisted Rise. "You've got plenty of time! We were just talking about going over to meet them at the station." Frowning, she added, "but, before we do, I think we need to clean you up a little bit. Come on, I've got a comb and a brush in my bag, and some makeup might not be a bad idea for those dark circles…"

While Rise and Minako went off together, talking in hushed voices, Kanji ad Teddie exchanged a puzzled look.

"Huh?" asked Kanji.

Teddie shook his head, sparkling all over as he remarked sagely, "Girls…always such a magical, uncharted mystery…"

Naoto did not look impressed with either of them. "Minako-chan was probably just working late," she said quietly. "And I sure she would appreciate it if you did not stare just because she seems to be having a bad hair day."

Eventually, all six of them did walk over to the train station, making it just in time to see the arrival of the twelve o'clock train from the city. Nanako carefully scanned each of the faces as the train doors opened, looking for the familiar smiles of any of her friends, but for one beloved face in particular.

"Nanako-chan!" shouted Yosuke's voice from somewhere at the front of the train. "Kanji! Minako! Hey, over here, guys!"

Nanako followed the sound of his voice, and beamed to see him standing on the platform, waving enthusiastically while Chie and Yukiko pulled what looked like a pair of very heavy suitcases out of a nearby train car. Sitting in his chair in front of them, with a backpack lying on his lap, was Yu Narukami, the one person who Nanako had wanted to see for weeks more than anyone else in the entire world.

"Big Bro!" she shrieked, rushing forward and throwing herself into his arms. The backpack, temporarily displaced by her enthusiasm, fell to the floor and lay there while Yu gave Nanako a big, warm, friendly hug.

"Hey, Chie-senpai…long time no see!" said Kanji, slapping Chie on the back and making her wince.

"Yuki-chan! You're back!" Teddie sparkled winningly at her, although Nanako noticed that he pointedly did not offer to help with her luggage.

Smiles, greetings, and embraces were exchanged all around. Nanako watched as Yosuke and Minako chatted warmly to each other, while Rise began prattling excitedly to Yukiko and Chie, trying to give them the fastest-ever resume of all of the things that had happened in her life since they'd left for college six months before.

"It's snowing," Nanako told Yu. "The snow's not very good, though. I don't think we can make a snowman today."

Yu squeezed her shoulder with one comforting hand. "Don't worry," he promised, "There will be other snow days. I'm not leaving for two weeks, so we'll have plenty of time to play together."

Nanako liked the sound of that. "I'm stronger now," she assured him. "I can help more with packing the snow, and making the body. Next year, I'll be able to do it all by myself! Um…but I'd rather do it with you," she added quickly. "It's much more fun when you're here."

"Yosuke-senpai," inquired Naoto. "How do you like college? Is the academic environment to your liking, there? Have you chosen a course of study?"

Yosuke stared at her for a moment. "Uh, honestly," he replied, "I'm still just trying to figure out how to get all of my work in on time and what a 'citation' is. I don't have to pick a major until next year, so why worry about it now?"

"How about the girls?" asked Yu, with just a hint of malice in his teasing tone. "I hear college girls are all really something. What do you think, Yosuke?"

That, apparently, was a question that Yosuke was much more prepared to answer. "Dude," he told Yu, "you have no idea. College is like, a totally different world from Inaba. There are girls everywhere, and you would never believe who's in the class above mine. I swear, it has to be fate."

Even Nanako leaned in to hear the end of the story, before it was interrupted by the untimely and alarmingly loud growl of Chie's stomach.

"Uh…sorry," she mumbled. "It was just a really long train ride, and I haven't eaten since breakfast…"

Groaning and laughing, the whole group gathered up bags and suitcases, and somehow managed to cart everything back to the food court, where they all sat down around the table together and began ordering.

"I have been looking forward to a nice juicy piece of steak for so long!" Chie was grinning all over her face. "I've been daydreaming about it all day…"

"Yes," agreed Yukiko thoughtfully. "It's strange how much you miss the little things that you never realized were important before."

Yosuke snorted. "Steak isn't a 'little thing' for Chie," he reminded Yukiko. "It's kind of her reason for living. The cafeteria at school doesn't have too much that anyone would really want to eat, so I can't say that I really blame her this time."

Nanako could see out of the corner of her eye that Minako wasn't eating anything. Instead, she had her eyes closed and was rubbing at her head with one hand.

"Minako?" asked Nanako hesitantly. "Um, does your head hurt?"

Instantly, every single pair of eyes at the table was focused on Minako's face. Apparently aware of all the sudden attention, Minako shook her head emphatically. "It's nothing," she promised. "It's just a stress headache, not a shadow. I promise. Honestly, I'm fine." After a moment, she added, "Yu, how are you feeling? You haven't been struggling with headaches at home, have you?"

"No, I haven't," Yu said. "Nanako says that's because you've all been working extra hard to clear out the place around our mind doors, though. I…really need to thank you for that. You're the best friends a guy could have. I mean it."

Each person mumbled their own little embarrassed response.

"I am certain you would do the same for us," murmured Naoto. "It is our pleasure to be of some help, at any rate."

For some reason, that only made Yu frown. "I wish it wasn't necessary," he told her. "You shouldn't have to spend so much of your time looking out for me."

"For us," Minako corrected him. "Remember, this isn't all your fault. I'm equally guilty."

Nanako didn't' understand what either of them was talking about. What did they mean "equally guilty?" It wasn't as though this was something they'd done on purpose, or that they were forcing anyone to do. They hadn't put the shadows inside their heads, just to make trouble for everyone else.  
"Nobody's guilty of anything," she insisted, and it came out a little more forcefully than she'd expected. "Um…you shouldn't blame yourselves for things that aren't your fault. Dad is always telling me 'you have to accept responsibility for your actions,' but, these aren't your actions, they're shadows, so…so it's different."

Nobody said anything for a moment, and Nanako realized that she was now the center of all the attention. Flushing a bit, she fidgeted with her menu.

"Nanako's right, you know," said Yosuke, taking it upon himself to save the moment, much to Nanako's relief. "Hey, I've got an idea. Before we go over to Yu and Nanako's place after lunch, let's check out the Velvet Room together. We can all say hi to Igor, and have a look around. I know you guys have already been in there today," he said, as Kanji opened his mouth to protest, "but now that we're all back home again, this is probably the best time for us to start working on a solution."

"A solution?" asked Rise.

Yosuke nodded. "Yeah," he repeated, "a solution to the Velvet Room problem. I mean, this can't really go on forever, right? We've all got lives to live, and what if one day something happens, and we forget to check the Velvet Room, or don't make it in time? Nah, enough is enough. We're going to have to put a stop this thing once and for all."

"But, senpai," began Naoto hesitantly. "We have no reason to believe that such a thing is even possible. Those are brave words, of course, but how can we be sure that there is a solution?"

Shrugging, Yosuke admitted, "Okay, we can't be sure, but…I'm not willing to admit that there isn't, not yet. Are you?"

Everyone at the table began shaking their heads.

"So, uh, does this mean that we're starting up the 'investigation team' again?" asked Kanji.

Yosuke grinned. "Of course!" he told them. "I mean, it's not like we ever dissolved it in the first place, right?"

Yu nodded slowly, and then reached over and gave Yosuke a friendly clap on the shoulder. "Okay," he said. "Then I'll leave this in your capable hands, leader."

As the others spoke up, each adding their own encouraging words, Yosuke looked slightly stunned.

"Hey," he said to Yu, "look, it's not like you won't always be our-!"

Yu was already shaking his head. "It's okay," he said reassuringly. "I don't mind."


	2. One - December 16

**Author's Note: **Hey guys! Sorry for the slow updates today. This weekend's gonna be a busy one for me, so I'll see you again on Sunday night. Until then, I hope the updates on both **Piecekeeping** and **Messiah** can tide you over.

Oh, and I am terribly excited, because **Supernova23** was awesome enough o let me work on a story with him! It's called **Crosses to Bear**, and it's about the healers in the persona games! Please do go check it out if you have the time, we'd both love to hear from you about it! You should read some of the stories on his page while you're at it, he's got a magnificent literary voice.

Oh, and don't let what Igor says in this chapter freak you out too much. Remember, it's only chapter one. If I gave you the solution now, there wouldn't be much of a story to tell!

Not yet, anyway.

The second half of this chapter is for those of you who are in college. Oh, how I miss those wonderful days…

**One – December 16**

Yosuke felt strange as he accompanied the other members of the team through the electronics department and into the TV. The word "leader" was echoing around uncomfortably inside his head, and there was a strange, lumpy feeling in the pit of his stomach. Of course, he'd always known that he was serving as the temporary leader, as Yu's right hand man, holding down the fort while Yu was out of commission. Something about hearing Yu say it out loud, however, had turned this into something that sounded sickeningly permanent. He wasn't just taking hits for his partner anymore. Now, he was the "leader." What did that mean? Did that mean that they were giving up? Were they never going to get Yu back?

"Hey, Yosuke?" asked Chie, sounding worried. "You…don't look so good. Everything okay? Did you eat something bad?"

Yosuke shook his head distractedly. "No, I'm fine," he assured her. "Just…forget about it."

Igor was waiting for them in the velvet Room, and next to him in the assistant's chair was Adachi, looking bored and distracted. For some reason, as soon as they walked in, Adachi glanced up and looked around at each of their faces, as though trying to find someone in particular.

"Oh, yeah," he muttered after a moment, apparently losing interest and falling back into a dejected, listless slump. "Right, of course she wouldn't be with you."

"Welcome," murmured Igor, "to the Velvet Room." Was it Yosuke's imagination, or did Igor look just a bit more tired and harassed than usual? Yosuke couldn't blame him. If he'd had to look Adachi in the eyes every day of his life, he'd be worn down too. At least, one of them would. Yosuke liked to think that if they were alone together for long enough, the one who'd come out the worse for wear would be Adachi. No matter how many times Yosuke came to the Velvet Room, and no matter how many times he found Adachi there, he'd never manage to get used to it. He didn't even want to try. Now that Adachi had infiltrated the Velvet Room, not even the power of persona was sacred anymore.

"Is there a way that I can be of assistance today?" asked Igor. He gave Adachi a pointed look, but the other man apparently wasn't even paying attention.

"Um," murmured Nanako, glancing at Yosuke for approval before speaking up, "We're here because we want to ask you something."

"Yeah," agreed Chie, with significantly more bravado than Yosuke imagined she really felt. "We're ready for this to be over. We want to solve the shadow thing once and for all!"

"We can't allow this to go on forever," agreed Yukiko. "We would never survive it. Neither would Yu and Minako-chan. There has to be another way."

Igor raised an eyebrow at Yosuke, which sent a little shiver down his spine. "What," asked Igor, "exactly are you proposing to do?"

No one really seemed to have an answer to that. Unfortunately, that meant that they all ended up looking to their leader for guidance, and since Yosuke was now officially the leader, he felt he had to say something.

Unfortunately, all that he had at his disposal was the truth. "Um, I don't know," he admitted. "We were kinda hoping that you could tell us that."

Much to Yosuke's relief, Igor didn't seem to think that was anything to be worried about. Instead, he nodded gravely, and took a slow, thoughtful look around at the assembled group.

"You are familiar," he told them, "of the way that the great seal was formed?"

Of course, thought Yosuke. How could he forget? First Minako, and then Yu had sacrificed all or part of themselves to help form the seal. As far as he understood it, neither of them had been fully aware of what they were doing at the time, either.

"Yeah," said Kanji. "Sure, we know. What about it?"

"The doors within the minds of your friends," continued Igor, "can also be sealed from the inside, if you wish to protect them permanently from the onslaught of the shadows."

No, thought Yosuke. No, that wasn't what he had wanted to hear at all. "You mean," he asked Igor, "that the only way to permanently block out the shadows is to make a seal? The same kind of seal that we're using to keep that Nyx thing out?"

Igor didn't say anything. Instead, he just looked at Yosuke, who found the unfaltering gaze too disconcerting to sit silently under for long.

"Minako and Yu had to die to create the seal against Nyx," he continued. "Does that mean that someone has to die for us to block the shadows out? You know we can't do that. That's not an option. We need something else."

Igor shrugged. "What if there is no other way?" he asked.

At first, Yosuke didn't have an answer to that. It seemed like such a ridiculous question. "Then, it's impossible," he insisted. "That means there's no way at all. "

"Big Bro and Minako would never want anyone to get hurt," agreed Nanako.

Yosuke knew she was right, and yet something about the way she'd said it made him remember that it was, essentially his fault that Yu had gotten hurt in the first place. Minako could blame herself all she wanted, and there had been a time when he'd been happy to blame her too, but…in the end, she'd offered to give herself up for Yu, and it had been Yosuke who had stopped her. Yosuke had insisted on the separated souls, and Yosuke had condemned them both to be plagued by shadows for the rest of their lives. It wasn't and would never be Minako's fault that Yu was suffering. It was Yosuke's, and there was no other way of looking at it.

If he was capable of just letting his partner get hurt like that, he wondered, was he really the right person to be a leader? Wasn't a leader supposed to have all the answers, and to make sure that all the members of his team got out of each and every scrape alive? Yu had always done that. Everyone had trusted him to watch their backs and to make sure that no harm came to them. How could Yosuke be a leader with a track record like the one he already had?

"No," repeated Yosuke. "That's not good enough. How can you ask me to sacrifice someone to save someone else? It doesn't work that way. What am I supposed to do, play rock, paper scissors to figure out who's worth more? No way. That's insane. Give us something else."

Igor just spread his hands out in front of him in a gesture of impotence. Yosuke closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Forget it," he muttered. "Fine, if you can't help us, then we'll figure it out ourselves."

"Yosuke," began Teddie, but Yosuke just shook his head.

"Come on, guys," he said. "Let's get out of here. We need a new game plan. We'll have to talk things through and then regroup when we've figured it out."

**Later that day, at the Dojima residence…**

Yosuke sat by himself next to the window, watching as the others chatted or watched TV on the sofa, relaxing and celebrating the fact that the crew was finally reunited after a six month hiatus.

"Don't worry about it," he'd assured them all, when they'd wandered together out of the Velvet Room. "We'll find another way. Igor doesn't know everything there is about persona stuff, anyway. We were the ones that figured out how to get Yu out of the seal, right? We did it once, and we'll do it again. Just leave it to me."

He wasn't sure exactly why he'd included that last part. If there was anything Yosuke really didn't want, it was to have everything left up to him, just for him to mess up like he had the last time. He had just been so anxious to see them all looking happy again after that talk with Igor, that he'd said some things he wasn't sure he was ready to mean.

At least, he realized, it had worked. Apparently convinced by Yosuke's enthusiastic denial of Igor's words, the rest of the team now seemed to be having a reasonably good time. As far as he could tell, he was the only one who'd remained unconvinced by his speech, probably because he knew better than anyone just how unfounded it was.

"Hey, senpai," said Kanji, wandering over in Yosuke's direction. "Aren't you gonna come talk with us? Naoto wants to hear all about your school. She won't shut up about 'the benefits of academic advancement,' and all Chie seems to know is that there's a good all-night gym on campus."

"Yeah, sorry," mumbled Yosuke. "I'm not really the right person to ask about that either.

Yu rolled up on the other side of Yosuke, glancing over his shoulder at Minako, who seemed to be chatting to Nanako about something in hushed but urgent tones. "Yeah, that reminds me," said Yu. "You were about to tell us something after we all got off the train. I think it was about the girls you met in college."

"Oh, yeah!" Yosuke was relieved to have something totally normal to talk about. "Okay, so, do you remember that trip that we took to Tatsumi Port Island, during your first year in school with us?"

Both Yu and Kanji nodded. It had, Yosuke had to admit, been a pretty memorable trip.

"Right, so," he continued. "There was that girl, right? Chihiro Fushimi?"

"Uh, the really cute one?" asked Kanji.

"She was nervous," Yu remembered. "Something about a speech inspired by her old senpai."

Yosuke nodded. "Yup," he said, "that's the one. Man, I thought she was gorgeous when I saw her on that field trip, but when I spotted her in my World History class on the second week of school…seriously, college makes everything better! Even the girls get cuter!"

"Really?" Yu grinned at him. "That's an impressive coincidence."

Yosuke nodded. "You're telling me!" he agreed. "Anyway, so I asked her if she'd tutor me for the midterm exams, but she had too many papers to write. She's double majoring in something and something else, I guess. She did say, though, that if I ever needed extra help, I could find her working in the library after six PM."

Kanji and Yu exchanged a look that was somehow impressed and disbelieving at the same time.

"So?" asked Kanji. "Did you go and see her?"

Yosuke sighed. Again, the truth was his only viable option. "Nah," he said. "The library is a frightening place. I'm worried I might get lost there and eaten by whatever horrifying monsters are lurking in between the stacks. Maybe I'll go try it after the break, but…"

"Horrifying monsters?" asked Yu. "Yosuke, you've spent years fighting shadows. What could be scarier than that?"

Yosuke held out his hands in a warding gesture. "Dude," he told Yu, "you have clearly never met a senior in the middle of writing a thesis…meeting one of them in the hall is like a near death experience all in itself. Going into the library at this time of year? That's pretty much the same thing as having a deathwish."

There was a moment of silence, during which Kanji looked thoughtful, and Yu looked simply amused.

"Wow, senpai," murmured Kanji. "College sounds scary."

Yosuke nodded gravely. "All I can say," he told the other two, "is that it is seriously good to be home."


	3. Two - December 17

**Author's Note: **I apologize for not updating last night as promised. I was unable to finish the chapter, because I got distracted by a Bond movie that Dag was watching, and before I knew it, it was one in the morning, and Dag insisted that I go to bed and stop this nonsense.

…I love movies where lots of things explode. Seriously.

Anyway, because I wasn't able to keep my updating promise last night, I am doing it now.

Warning: My eyes are acting up today. It's hard to focus on the page in front of me; things keep getting blurry and indistinct. Please forgive me if there are an unexpected number of typos, I promise to fix them ASAP if I catch them. You're marvelous for being so patient with me. Thank you so much!

We're not advancing the plot too much with this chapter, but we are setting up some important character conflicts. Stay tuned for more action in our next chapter, when Nanako makes an important discovery related to her persona ability…

**Two – December 17**

Nanako was having what she thought of as "an identity crisis." Dad had once tried to explain that an identity crisis was what happened when you couldn't figure out who you were. Nanako had thought that was very strange, since even little babies usually knew their own name, but Dad had explained that it was a grown up thing and that she didn't have to spend any time worrying about it.

Now, Nanako was worried about it. She was worried because she had suddenly realized that there were too many people she wanted to be, and she couldn't decide on which person she wanted to be the most.

Until recently, she'd been sure that she wanted to grow up to be just like Chie. Chie was powerful, strong, funny, and a really nice person. She could beat up all the bad guys and protect herself just as well as any of the boys could. She could protect her friends, too, and she always did. Nanako thought that was fantastic. Then, Nanako had started realizing that maybe she wanted to be beautiful and kind, like Yukiko. That, of course, was harder, because although Nanako knew how to train like Chie did, she did not know how to just "look pretty" like Yukiko seemed to. Kindness, she knew, was something you could manage just by thinking about how other people felt, but beauty was a whole different problem. It was something, she hoped, that she'd learn about as she got older, although at the moment, things weren't looking good.

Then, just today, she'd realized that what she really wanted was to be just like Minako. Minako was amazing. She always had opinions, and she was always active. She never backed down or let anyone tell her what not to do. Somehow, she could make anyone do anything she wanted, just by smiling at them. That morning, when Nanako had read off of the chart that it was her turn to go on patrol in the Velvet Room with Junpei, Yosuke had been really angry. He had refused to let the two of them go in together, insisting that there was no reason why they couldn't wait until next week, when Yosuke would be available instead.

It hadn't been until Minako had stepped in on Junpei's behalf that Yosuke had been willing to give up and let Nanako and Junpei take the patrol. It seemed that whenever Minako suggested something, it was always a good idea, and that whenever Minako liked someone, everyone else ended up liking that person as well.

Of course, Nanako knew, there were exceptions to that rule. After all, she was starting to suspect that Minako might like Adachi, and there was no doubt that everyone else still didn't like him. Everyone, that is, except for Nanako herself.

The problem, of course, was that Nanako realized that there was no way she could possibly grow up to be all of these people at the same time. Dad and Big Bro both agreed that it was important for her to have goals. Her teacher, too, was always choosing things about Nanako's schoolwork that they needed to "focus on" together. That all made sense. Since she couldn't do everything at once, Nanako would have to try to do one thing at a time.

The question was, what was it the right time to do first? Who would be the best person for Nanako to be, right at this moment? Was there a particular kind of person that Nanako needed to be, in order to get better at all the things she had to do as the Wild Card, or inside the Velvet Room?

She was still lost in these frustrating reflections as she and Junpei, finally cleared to go on patrol, walked together through the Velvet Room door.

"Sup," said Junpei, nodding in Igor's direction. "We're here for the shadows, man. Anything we should be worried about?"

"I am not aware," Igor informed him, "of any disturbances at this time."

For some reason, neither Junpei nor Igor seemed to even notice Adachi. Nanako, feeling the injustice of just ignoring him like that, spoke up.

"Good morning, Adachi-san!" she said.

For the first time since they'd come in, Adachi 's eyes lost their glazed over look, and he blinked at Nanako, nodding. "Yeah," he said. "Sure, if you say it is."

There was a beat of silence between them, until Igor coughed, not as politely at usual, and Adachi started, then stood up, shooting a slightly resentful look in Igor's direction.

"Right, so you're going into that room again?" he asked. "I guess that means I'm coming too. Let's…just get this over with."

He pushed open the door to the nightmare room, revealing an emptiness that made Nanako breath out a little, hopefully unnoticed sigh of relief. If there was nothing in here today, then hopefully that meant Big Bro and Minako weren't going to have any trouble for a while.

Junpei, on the other hand, seemed less relieved. He made sure to push open the door to Minako's mind, and check carefully inside before nodding to himself, and returning to Nanako.

"Looks like we're good," he told her.

Nanako, in turn, tried to push open Yu's mind door, and was very frustrated when she found that it was, for some reason, too heavy today for her to open by herself.

"You okay?" asked Junpei, as he planted his feet to help her with the door. "Not feeling so good? Here, let me handle it. Shouldn't be letting little kids do a man's work anyway."

Nanako bristled. "I'm not little," she informed him hotly. "And it's not 'man's' work either. I bet you wouldn't say stuff like that if Minako was around."

The slightly sheepish look on Junpei's face told Nanako that she was right, he probably wouldn't have dared.

"Besides," she continued, "I'm plenty strong. I've been working with Chie every day to get better and better, and I bet she could open that door without any help. Chie's the best."

They looked inside the room, and found that it too was empty. As Junpei closed the door again, he told Nanako, "if you've been working out with her every day, that's probably why you couldn't do it. Sometimes, you gotta take a break. Otherwise you'll burn out and get hurt."

Nanako didn't say anything to that. She didn't want to give him the satisfaction of hearing her admit that, yes, she was tired, and she probably could use just a little bit of a break. Sitting on the sofa and watching TV all day sounded like a really fun idea right now, but she wasn't willing to do that while everyone else was working to find the answer to Big Bro's problems.

"I'm fine," she said instead. "Don't worry about me."

That, she decided, wasn't really fair. After all, Junpei was probably just trying to be helpful. Boys sometimes ended up just making her mad when they tried to be helpful. Minako had explained that boys were particularly annoying when they liked you or cared about you, and Nanako knew, of course, that Minako was right, particularly about the boys that went to Nanako's school with her. Junpei, however, was supposed to be a man, not a boy, and he shouldn't have been able to be quite so annoying.

If his being annoying meant that he cared about her, she thought, then that was probably a good thing. After all, she'd never been totally sure about Junpei. Although she didn't like to think too much about it, he had been the one who had dragged her into the Velvet Room in the first place. Not that she was mad, anymore. Big Bro had explained that Junpei had only done it because he was so scared that Minako might get hurt if he didn't, and that made sense.

What, Nanako wondered, would she do if she thought that Big Bro might get hurt again? Would she point a gun at someone like that? She didn't have a gun, of course, so it was a stupid question for her to be asking herself, but…

"This…is just kinda creepy," muttered Adachi, looking over at the columns that had once been the three Velvet Room assistants. "I mean, I've heard of the walls having ears, but…this takes it to a whole, weird-ass new level."

"Those are my friends," mumbled Nanako. "And they are not creepy, or weird."

While Junpei and Adachi walked back through the door and into the Velvet Room, Nanako stayed behind and stared thoughtfully at the columns.

"I'm sorry that I didn't bring anything for you, today," she said out loud, positive that even though there was no response, the assistants could hear her. "I'm on a patrol with Junpei. We're checking to make sure that there aren't any shadows in here."

A new thought struck her, one that hadn't occurred to her before, and she frowned. "Do the shadows hurt you, too, when they come?" she asked. What would happen, she wondered, if a shadow came to try and break down the walls again? If the walls broke, what would happen to Theodore, Margaret, and Elizabeth? Would they die, or would they just turn into something else, like they had before when she'd needed their help to save Big Bro and Minako?

"No, I won't let that happen," she promised them. "Don't worry. I'll make sure that you, and Big Bro, and Minako and everyone else are all safe, okay? So don't be scared."

Again, there was no response, but Nanako knew that she could feel something, as though there was warmth and calm radiating off of the columns in response to her own need. There was no reason for her to tell them not to be scared, she knew. She was the one who was really scared. What was she scared of? That didn't seem to have an easy answer. Nanako wished for a moment that she was more like Theodore and Margaret. They always seemed to know the right answers to every question, and if they'd been able to tell her, they might have cleared up all sorts of things that were bothering her right now.

"Okay," she said, giving a little wave before turning around to follow Junpei back into the Velvet Room. "I'll come back soon, I promise. Next time, I'll make you some new pictures, okay? Um…bye."

Just as she was about to leave, Nanako thought she saw something out of the corner of her eye, lying on the ground right next to the column that had once been Elizabeth. Reaching down, Nanako picked it up, and found herself holding a persona card, just like the ones she already had of Icarus, Angel, and Dawn.

This one, however, was different. The picture on this card wasn't anything beautiful, soothing, or even friendly looking like her other cards. This one was terrifying. It looked to her like a horrible creature in black clothes, with a sword in one hand, and coffins coming out of its head and neck.

"Um…" Nanako frowned uncertainly at the card. "Is…is this for me? Am I supposed to take this?"

She didn't really want it, she decided. Unlike Icarus, this persona certainly didn't look like anything she wanted to carry around inside her mind.

Still, it was always impolite to reject a gift. Bowing slightly, Nanako murmured, "Well, thank you very much," to Elizabeth, before tucking the card hastily into her pocket and hurrying back out of the room.

"Hey, what took you so long?" asked Junpei, giving her a frantic little glare as she emerged back into the Velvet Room. "I was starting to get really freaked out. Mina-tan would beat the crap out of me if she thought I'd let something happen to you in here."

"I'm sorry," murmured Nanako distractedly. "I was talking to Elizabeth."

"Yeah…" Junpei frowned at her. "You didn't uh…hear her talking back to you, did you?"

Nanako blinked. "No, they don't say anything," she told him. "They can hear me anyway, though. Sometimes they laugh."

"Uh huh." Junpei paused for a moment, apparently trying to figure out what he wanted to say. "Hey, Nanako-chan, remember what I was saying before, about how you might need a break from all of the working out, and fighting and stuff? I'm really starting to think that would be a good idea…"

"Why?" lied Nanako. "I don't feel tired."

"Right," agreed Junpei, "but…um…you know what, maybe you'd better talk to Yosuke about it. He's…he'll probably know what I'm talking about."


	4. Three - December 18

**Author's Note: **Dear god, what a day. Well, at least the multiple hours during which I was stuck on a stalled metro train allowed me some extra time to think through what I'd be doing for this chapter.

And now, Minako and Yosuke, because they are my two favorite characters.

And, uh, whoops, I apologize. The important Nanako discovery I mentioned? That's in the next chapter. I really do have to learn to be better at figuring out chapter length and how long certain scenes will take…someday, maybe I'll get there. Just one more establishing character shot, and then we get into the real action. Next chapter (I promise, this time) Nanako and Teddie make an enlightening discovery, and Yosuke, Yu, and Minako start looking for the answer to an old problem. Next time, on **Piecekeeping…**

**Three – December 18**

Yosuke was not expecting a surprise attack. He was minding his own business, finishing up his shift handing out flyers for an upcoming Junes event, when Minako suddenly appeared in the crowd, and headed straight for him with a look of determined, self-righteous vengeance on her face.

"Ack," muttered Yosuke. He wasn't too sure what he'd done, but it was obviously something, and now he had no place and no time in which to hide.

"Yosuke!" called Minako, forcing her way through groups of milling patrons. "What was that all about, yesterday? When are you going to man up and get over yourself?"

Yosuke just blinked at her. "Uh, yesterday…" he said, trying to remember what heinous crime he'd committed the day before. Yesterday was…hey, what are we talking about?"

"You know exactly what we're talking about," Minako assured him. Yosuke inwardly begged to differ. "The way you keep flying off the handle at Junpei," Minako continued, clarifying things slightly. "Look, Yosuke, it's been over a year since we re-sealed Nyx. You have to let it go. All the others have let it go. Even Nanako isn't angry. If she doesn't care, then why should you?"

Finally, things began to make sense to Yosuke, and his face hardened slightly as he shook his head. "No can do," he muttered. "I get that he's your friend, but…"

"But nothing!" Minako was now half-commanding, half-pleading. "He's done everything he can to be a good member of this team. The least you can do is treat him like one!"

"He tried," Yosuke reminded her, "to kill my best friend's little sister."

"No, he didn't!" insisted Minako. "It wasn't even a real gun. He got scared. Everyone gets scared. If there's anyone you should be blaming for this, it's me, not him. I'm the one that put you all in that position in the first place."

Yosuke sighed. There they went again, he thought, rehashing and going back over all of the same arguments they'd had before They'd been having this conversation on and off ever since that fateful day in the Velvet Room when Minako and Yu had each sacrificed parts of themselves to protect the rest of the world, and the rest of each other. Now, all they seemed to spend their time doing was hoarding the guilt or throwing it back and forth.

"Don't take this the wrong way, or anything," muttered Yosuke, "but it sounds like I'm not the only one who has to learn to let things go."

Minako was silent for a moment. Then, unexpectedly, she laughed. "That's funny…I feel like I was just having this conversation with someone last night. You know, about how it's important not to hold grudge and to try and move on with your life. Didn't we agree that we were going to focus on moving on?"

Yosuke thought about the confident speech he'd given to the rest of the team, about how they were definitely going to save Yu and Minako, without having to sacrifice anything or anyone in order to do it. "Yeah," he mumbled. "Well, people say a lot of things they don't really mean." Shaking himself to try and get rid of the gloom, he asked, "Who were you talking to about grudges last night?"

"Uh, well." For some reason, Minako sounded suddenly flustered. "I…it's funny, but I don't remember. Maybe I should be getting more sleep…"Biting her lip, she frowned awkwardly for a moment, then abruptly changed the subject. "So, uh, have you seen the news lately?"

Yosuke had, quite honestly, been avoiding the news. Just last week, he'd seen on TV that an Inaba schoolteacher had been strangled to death not too far from Junes. She'd been a teacher at Nanako's elementary school, and the idea that someone had gotten that close to people he cared about had kept him awake and paranoid for the next two nights straight. This couldn't, he knew, have anything to do with the murders that had take place the year before, but nonetheless, they brought back all sorts of memories that Yosuke had spent a long time working to suppress.

"I…sort of," he said, noncommittally. "Why? What happened"

"They found another body yesterday," Minako told him. "A seventeen year old girl named Hinata, outside Shiroku."

"Seventeen…" Yosuke shuddered involuntarily. Saki-senpai had been seventeen when they'd found her body, too. That image was still just as vivid in his mind now as it had been the day he'd seen the photo on the news of her hanging there upside down.

"Okay," said Minako, taking a deep breath. "Tell you what. Why don't we start this conversation over, from the top? I'm going to go over there, turn around, walk back over to you, and we're going to find something….a little happier to talk about. Okay?"

Yosuke almost smiled. "You'll be less angry this time, right?"

"I'll give it my best effort," Minako promised him.

Yosuke had genuinely thought that she was joking, but Minako actually turned around, walked away, then turned again and came back towards him with a much brighter, sort of plastic smile pasted on her face.

"Good morning!" she said. "How's work?"

Yosuke laughed. "Fine, I guess," he said. "How's yours? Shouldn't you be at the station right now?"

"Probably." Minako shrugged. "I had some errands I wanted to run. Besides, I haven't really gotten a chance to talk to you since you came home. At the party the other night, you just wandered off and I couldn't find you again. I wanted to say hi."

Judging by the way she'd born down on her with vengeance in her eyes just a few moments ago, Yosuke didn't totally buy her story, but he decided that he was willing to go along with it. "Yeah, well," he said. "There's been a lot to think about."

"Want to talk about it?" asked Minako.

"I don't think so." Yosuke shook his head. "We're supposed to be talking about happy things, right? So…maybe another time."

"Okay," agreed Minako. "Then, how about this? I heard a rumor that you may have met a special lady at school his year."

Yosuke opened his mouth in surprise, then closed it again, trying to figure out where Minako might have heard something like that. "Kanji," he said under his breath, realization suddenly dawning. "Why can't that guy keep his mouth shut, just once?"

Minako was insistent. "No," she assured him, "there's a point to this, trust me. That girl, Chihiro Fushimi? I think I went to school with her, back at Gekkoukan. I'm pretty sure we were even on student council together, although I didn't get to talk to her much. Nobody, as far as I know, talked to her much. Junpei says she ran away when he'd accidentally bump into her in the hall."

"That…sounds like Chihiro-senpai," agreed Yosuke. "She's not really the social butterfly type."

"Right!" Minako was clearly warming to the topic. "So, I had this fantastic idea!"

Suddenly, Yosuke was worried. "Wait, an idea? An idea about what? Nobody told you to have an idea."

Minako frowned at him. "See, that's the funny thing about ideas. Sometimes they just happen without permission. Anyway, I figure it's probably hard for you to get to talk to her, especially if she spends most of her time running away, right? So, what if we held a little 'student council reunion' here in Inaba? Mitsuru and I would come, and we'd see if we could get Hidetoshi to come too, although he probably won't make it. He wasn't too social either. Anyway, then you'd have her here, in your hometown, over the winter break, and you might finally have a chance to really get to know her."

Minako beamed as if she had just come up with a foolproof solution to the problem of world peace. Yosuke, on the other hand, was suspicious.

"Who put you up to this?" he demanded. "Seriously, how many of you are in on this thing?"

Minako sighed. "I told you," she said, "this was my own idea." Yosuke, however, continued to stare expectantly at her, and she must have been able to feel the stare, because eventually, she quailed. "Okay, maybe Yu and Kanji have something to do with it…and it's possible that Chie and Yukiko were in favor of the idea. Rise wants to try going on another double date."

Yosuke groaned, just thinking about the catastrophic "double date" that he and Minako had gone on with Rise and Junpei only a few months before. "All of you?" he asked incredulously. "What the…is this some kind of conspiracy?"

Minako apparently needed a moment to figure out how to answer that question. "Well, you see…" she said eventually. "It all comes back to that thing about needing to move on with our lives. Remember how you told me that you hadn't been on a date since the death of that girl you liked in high school?"  
Yosuke winced to hear her put it so bluntly, but Minako soldiered on.

"Enough is enough," she finished. "Look, you're always telling me that we can't keep looking back and feeling guilty about what happened, but…we're both doing it, aren't we? Maybe it's time we both started living a little bit. Think of this as…an intervention."

The idea of Minako and Yu intervening on Yosuke's behalf was a little bit funny in a not-so-funny way. The two people in the world whom Yosuke could honestly say had way more legitimate problems than he did right now were trying to help him get a date. "We're in the middle of a huge crisis," he said, around his thoughts."There's stuff we have to do."

"And what if this goes on forever?" Minako pressed him. "Are you going to devote the rest of your life to making sure that Yu and I stop having headaches? Are you guys really gonna give up being normal people so that you can spend all the time inside the Velvet Room? No, that's…that's insane. Look, Yosuke, this was never supposed to be the way things turned out for you. We want you to be really happy, okay?"

Something about the way she had phrased that last part bothered Yosuke a lot. It sounded almost as though she was getting ready to die. "We want you to be happy," was the sort of thing people said when they got the bad news from their doctor, or when they knew that they were never going to see you again. It wasn't the sort of thing you were supposed to just asy to your friend out of nowhere, in the middle of the food court.

"Are you giving up?" he demanded.

Minako shook her head. "Of course not. I'm not giving up, but…"

"But what?" Yosuke could feel his temper rising slightly. "Why are you acting like this is the end, like we gotta make a decision, right now, about the rest of our lives?"

Minako chewed on her lip again. Yosuke wished that he could meet her eyes, but even without that, her expression was transparent enough.

"Someone told you," he said slowly. "Someone told you what Igor said the other day, in the Velvet Room, about sealing up your minds. You're telling me that it's okay for me to let it go, aren't you? You're not giving up, you want me to give up. That's what this is, isn't it?"

"I…" mumbled Minako. "Yosuke, I don't want anyone else to get hurt. I couldn't live with that. I don't think any of us could. Maybe it's time to just put this thing to rest and let things play out the way they…"

"No!" Now, Yosuke really was angry. "Hell no! What kind of a guy do you think I am? You think I'd just give up on my best friend like that? After everything we went through to make sure that you and he came out of this alive in the first place?"

"He's not just your best friend," Minako reminded him. "You're his best friend, too."

At first, Yosuke had no idea what she even meant by that.

"You know how it felt when Yu got hurt?" she continued, insistently. "That's how it would feel to him if something happened to you. And…Yosuke, I feel the same way. It's not like we could go on and have happy, successful lives knowing that we had them because of something you or someone else killed yourselves doing."

"What am I supposed to do, then?" asked Yosuke, half hoping that she might really have an answer for him. "I don't know what else there is to try."

Minako just shook her head. "I don't know," she said apologetically. "But…I needed to say something. I need you to know that you can walk away. You can all still walk away from this, understand? Anyway. I have to go to work, but…we can talk more later. I wasn't kidding about Chihiro. Think about my 'reunion' 'idea, anyway."

As Minako started towards the police station, Yosuke clenched both of his fists.

She didn't know him nearly as well as she thought she did, apparently. If anything, what she had just said had only strengthened his resolve. Minako hadn't walked away from him or from Yu when the two of them had needed her to come to the rescue. There was no way he was going to turn around and betray her now.


	5. Four - December 18

**Author's Note: **Hello everyone!

Okay, so, let's just decide right now that we are no longer going to announce what's going to be happening in future chapters. I seem to be changing my mind about the placement of certain events quite a bit. Oops.

Also, introducing Dojima's POV! It's time he got some say in this story, especially now that he's inevitably becoming more aware of the things that are going on around him and in the Velvet Room. We will see a lot more of him later, and he will get more involved as the story progresses. At least it's not Adachi. This character should be a lot easier to write, right? Right. Fingers crossed, everybody.

I apologize for the fact that there have been slightly fewer updates lately. Life has been even more hectic than usual at work and at home. Please bear with me, and I promise that I'll start updating more regularly as soon as things get back to normal around here. Honest!

**Four – December 18**

As Yosuke stood, lost in a flood of newfound determination, Nanako came running up to him.

"Yosuke?" she asked, looking at the packet of flyers he still held in his hand. "Um, I know you're busy, but can I ask you something?"

"Sure," Yosuke stuffed the flyers into his pocket. It wasn't like this was important, anyway, it was just a job to pass some time and make some money over the break. "What's wrong?"

Nanako held something out to him, and Yosuke picked it out her hand. It was a persona card, although it wasn't one that Yosuke had ever seen before. It was pretty hideous, too, scary-looking, like something you'd have nightmares about that you wouldn't want to admit to your friends in the morning.

"What is this?" he asked her.

Nanako sighed. "Oh," she mumbled. "I was going to ask that…"

"Going to ask what?" Teddie emerged from inside the grocery department, munching on something that Yosuke was sure he shouldn't have been eating, and had probably charmed away from some poor, gullible older saleswoman. "Hi, Nana-chan! Oooh, what's that?"

Without waiting for a response, Teddie snatched the persona card out of Yosuke's hand, and looked at it.

"Do you know what it is?" asked Nanako.

"Of course he doesn't," mumbled Yosuke. "How would Teddie know anything about-!"

"This is bad," said Teddie, and the suddenly serious, worried tone in his usually obnoxiously chipper voice made Yosuke stop mid-sentence. "This is a really bad thing…I don't know why, but…I get a bad feeling just thinking about this persona."

Nanako frowned. "Yeah," she said. "I do too."

Yosuke, who also got chills down his spine when he looked at that card, decided that he nevertheless had to be the voice of reason in this conversation. "Hey, come on," he cajoled them. "It can't be all that awful, right? I mean, it's a persona. They're the good guys. Or…we're the good guys, and they're the guys that make the good guys…the good guys." He stopped, frowning. Okay, that could have come out a little better.

"What about Magatsu Izanagi?" countered Teddie, with unexpected clarity. "Adachi-baby's no good guy, and he can use a persona."

Good point, thought Yosuke. So, was Teddie saying that this persona was the kind of persona that came from the soul of someone like Adachi? That was a disturbing thought. Were there more evil people out there in the world with the power to use persona?

"Where did you get this?" he demanded.

"Elizabeth gave it to me," said Nanako, without missing a beat.

Yosuke tried to exchange a knowing, significant look with Teddie, but Teddie wasn't co-operating. Teddie never seemed bothered by the idea of Nanako talking to dead or nonexistent people. Then again, thought Yosuke, Teddie was still figuring out how the human world really worked. Maybe he didn't really understand yet that other people just didn't do things like that.

"She did give it to me," insisted Nanako, apparently seeing the dubious expression on Yosuke's face. "She wanted me to have this, so she left it at the bottom of her statue for me!'

Nanako sounded annoyed, but Yosuke was at least a little bit relieved. If it had been sitting at the bottom of the column, then at least Nanako wasn't now hallucinating that Elizabeth had given it to her in person. He knew, of course, that witnessing death, like Nanako had, could sometimes be terribly traumatic, and Nanako was only eight years old. They'd all been hoping for months that the events in the Velvet Room hadn't psychologically scarred Nanako for life, but conversations like this were starting to make him feel as though maybe the damage was worse than they'd originally thought.

"Oh, I know!" announced Teddie suddenly. "Let's ask Mina-chan about it! She knows all sorts of things about persona! She was using it even before we were!"

"We can't show he the card," Yosuke reminded him. "She won't' be able to see it, and I don't know if we can easily describe something like this…"

Teddie looked crestfallen. "Oh," he mumbled. "Yeah, that's right…"

"How about Junpei?" asked Nanako. "He and Minako are friends, so…they probably talk about stuff. Maybe he'll know what this is."

Yosuke's knee-jerk reaction was to reject that, and to tell Nanako that she should be staying away from Junpei as much as possible. He opened his mouth to tell her that, but managed to catch Teddie's eye just in time. Teddie was beaming hopefully at him. Nanako was smiling enthusiastically at him. There was very little that he could let himself do to crush their dreams in the face of all that rampant positivity.

Besides, he told himself. Maybe, at least about that, Minako had been right. She'd told him that it was time to get over things and move on. Some things he'd never be able to get over, but there was something to be said for picking his battles, and he'd chosen a few pretty spectacular ones already.

"Okay," he relented, with a little sigh of defeat. "That's not such a bad idea. We'll go ask Junpei."

There was still another half an hour left on Yosuke's shift, so Teddie wandered away to slack off with Nanako while Yosuke finished handing out the flyers. When he was done, Yosuke looked for his friends and found them in the electronics department, playing one of the new try-before-you-buy video game consoles off in a corner.

"Pow!" said Nanako. "Wham! Bang! Oooh, I got you, Teddie!"

"Hey, kids aren't supposed to be playing violent video games like this," Yosuke told her. "It's against the store policy."

Nanako turned around, and blinked innocently up at him. "But, this is just like fighting shadows," she explained. "It's like practice for making them explode! Boom!"

Yosuke took a deep breath. Right, he thought. Well, okay, in light of all the fighting she'd been doing recently, even combat-style video games seemed kind of like old news. The world, he realized, was turning into a place that his parents would probably have been afraid to raise him in…or maybe that was just his world. The rest of the universe, still unaware of the existence of shadows, and persona, was still oblivious to the fact that violent video games were the least of their concerns.

The three of them walked together over to Daidara's store, where they found Junpei, as usual, yawning and trying not to fall asleep behind the counter. Daidara himself was nowhere to be found, something that happened quite frequently now that he had someone else to watch the store when he felt like going out. Attempts at theft had been a problem in the past, but Junpei usually handled those pretty quickly. Even Yosuke had to admit that Junpei was pretty quick on his feet.

"Welcome to Daidara's-oh, hey!" Junpei brightened up when he saw who had come in, although he did give Yosuke just the hint of a surly look before turning to address Nanako and Teddie. "Whatcha guys need today? In the market for some new weapons? Dude, I just got this sweet new sword…can't wait to show it off and take out some shadows, man!"

"Hey, Junpei," began Teddie, holding tout the persona card. "Do you know what this is? Nana-chan found it in the Velvet Room."

She hadn't found it, thought Yosuke. She said Elizabeth had "given it" to her. He glanced at Teddie in surprise, and saw the innocent, guileless look on Teddie's face. Was Teddie covering for Nanako after all? Maybe he did understand more about the human world than Yosuke had previously thought.

"Yeah? Okay, let me take a look. After all," said Junpei importantly, "I am a little more experienced than you kids when it comes to stuff like…oh shit!"

The card fell out of Junpei's hands and fluttered to the floor. Nanako bent down to retrieve it.

"What's wrong?" asked Yosuke. "What the hell is that thing?"

"It's, um…" Junpei didn't look too happy. "Thanatos, huh? Well, it's…it's Ryoji. I mean, it's not, but…it's sort of like death, and Ryoji was death, and it looks…I mean, he looked…dude, where did you say you got this?"

"Elizabeth gave-!" began Nanako.

"What do you mean 'death?'" interrupted Yosuke. "What's death got to do with it? Is this a bad persona?"

"Are you kidding? No way," said Junpei. "This one's crazy strong. This was Mina-tan's persona, back in the day…or, one of them, anyway."

"So," said Yosuke, "we should probably ask her about it."

For some reason, Junpei didn't seem to like that idea. He frowned, nodded once to himself, and then looked Yosuke straight in the eyes.

"Nah," he said. "Just leave her alone about it. We don't need to talk about that stuff anymore, okay? All that crazy shit that happened, back when we sealed Nyx away for the first time…nobody wants to relive that. It's in the past. It's way in the past. Let's just…let's just let it go, okay? She doesn't need to know about finding this. It'll just bring back ugly memories. What's the point?"

Yosuke could see from the unexpectedly closed look on Junpei's face that he wasn't messing around. That was right, he thought. Minako had died to create the seal, just the same way that Yu had done almost two years ago.

Only, Yosuke realized, Yu had come back after a couple of months. Junpei hadn't gotten Minako back for more than three years.

"Let it go, okay?" repeated Junpei.

"Yeah," muttered Yosuke. "Sure. We don't have to bother her about it."

For the briefest of moments, Junpei and Yosuke understood each other.

Then, Teddie, interrupted.

"But…if we can't ask Mina-chan," he insisted, "then what should we do about it? This thing looks scary…I don't think Nana-chan should have it unless we know more about it first. Let's go and ask Igor, right now."

That seemed reasonable enough to everyone, so Yosuke and the others thanked Junpei, and turned back in the direction of Junes again.

**Meanwhile, at the Dojima residence…**

"Hey, anybody home?" called out Dojima, as he strode through the front door.

Yu was hanging out in front of the television, looking over a sheaf of papers that he had balanced on his lap. He looked up when the door opened, and Dojima saw that he had some large, dark circles under his eyes.

"You're exhausted," Dojima said, sitting down next to him. "What is this stuff, homework? I guess your mom wouldn't want to me to try to talk you out of doing that, but…shouldn't you be out, hanging with your friends? It's winter vacation, you're supposed to taking a break."

Yu smiled, and shook his head. "I'm still playing catch up from all the work I missed while I was stuck at home," he said. "If I'm going to graduate at the end of this year, I need to start working harder. Otherwise I'll be waving from the platform while Kanji, Naoto, and Rise go off to college next year without me."

"Yeah." Dojima sighed. "It probably wasn't easy watching your friends leave without you last year, I guess. Still I…it could have been a lot worse. It was a lot worse."

Yu gave him a look that Dojima couldn't read, and for once he was sure that it wasn't just his inability to understand the inner workings of teenagers. There was, and had probably always been something going on with Yu and his friends that Dojima didn't even come close to understanding, and there were nights that he still lay awake, trying not to wonder what those mysterious things might be. He was a detective, and it was his job to learn the truth, no matter what the cost.

Still, when it came to stuff like this, part of him worried that maybe he didn't want to know the truth. The truth wouldn't make the world any less of a scary place. If anything, it would only give him more things to wish he didn't have to worry about.

"Aren't you supposed to be at work?" asked Yu.

"Uh, right." Dojima nodded. "I forgot my lunch at home. Guess I'm getting old after all…I've been forgetting all kinds of things lately."

Apparently, Yu wasn't fooled. "If you'd forgotten your lunch, you would have sent Minako to get it," he reminded Dojima. "Either that, or you just wouldn't have eaten anything. You came back to check up on me, didn't you?"

"Uh," muttered Dojima, unwilling to admit to that. "Hey, isn't Nanako here? I thought she was with you."

Yu shook his head. "I think she went off to Junes to find Yosuke and Teddie. She offered to take me with her, but I really do have to get this homework done, and she's definitely safe with Yosuke, so…"

Dojima frowned. "Yeah, probably," he agreed. "Still, you've been reading the papers. We've got another murder case on our hands. Maybe I'm being a paranoid dad, but, even in broad daylight, she shouldn't be out wandering around. It'd be better if she'd stayed home with you."

He walked back to the door, shaking his head. Nanako was mature for her age…sometimes way too mature. She was already starting to act like a teenager, going off on her own without so much as a word as to where she was going to be, hanging out with a bunch of older boys…he didn't like it. Not, of course, that he didn't trust Hanamura and the others, but...it just wasn't right. Spending time with her Big Bro was one thing, but…

"Where are you going?" asked Yu. "Back to the station?"

"Nah," growled Dojima. "I'll go back eventually. First I'm gonna go to Junes and round up that daughter of mine. When she comes back in, you keep her here, understand? I don't want her face to be the next one I see in the headlines."

"Hey, uncle Dojima," called Yu. "Wait!"

Dojima was already closing the door behind him.


	6. Five - December 18

**Author's Note: **Today was a long day, but I did manage to type up a quick update for y'all. This is mostly good old Yosuke angst, followed by good clean fun…although this chapter, if you think about it, is going to open up a lot of doors for our intrepid heroes in the future. What has Nanako been given that persona at this point in her journey? What will it mean for her? How will Dojima decided to interpret the events of this chapter…?

Find out all this and more in our next update…but seriously, before that, I need to go and take a nap. Maybe all this Benadryl is just making it hard for me to keep my eyes open…

**Five – December 18**

Inside the Velvet Room, Yosuke, Nanako, and Teddie stood in front of Igor, while he glanced over the persona card that Elizabeth had left for Nanako. Igor's face was always so hard to read, thought Nanako with some patience. She couldn't tell what he was thinking about at all!

"Intriguing," he murmured.

"What? What's so intriguing about it?" asked Yosuke.

"This," continued Igor,"is Thanatos, the ultimate persona of the Death arcana. Once, this belonged to my assistant, Elizabeth…and before that, it resided inside the mind of one of our most successful former guests."

He's talking about Minako, thought Nanako. This was Minako's persona. She felt a little, involuntary thrill at the idea that she, Nanako Dojima, was now the owner of one of the original personas that Minako Arisato had used to save the world! Minako was so cool! Nanako felt a little bit cooler just thinking about it.

Yosuke, on the other hand, did not look very happy. "The death arcana?" he asked. "So that's…um." Frowning, he started again. "Wait, what does that even mean?"

"The Death arcana," murmured Igor, "is representative of the end of one journey, and perhaps a transition to another. The sorrow of goodbyes, or the regeneration of a new soul. With this card comes the possibility of remarkable change."

Remarkable change, thought Nanako. Was she going to change? Well, of course she was. After all, she was changing a bit more every day, wasn't she? Just that morning, Dad had said that he was sure she'd gotten taller in juts the past few days. She was smarter, now, too, smarter than she had been three weeks ago, or two months ago, or a year ago. Change was something that never stopped happening, and the more she changed, the more she had the chance to become the person she wanted to grow into. Change was a good thing! It was just like growing up!

"Huh?" asked Teddie. "Sorrow? Loss? Nana-chan? You're not lost, are you?"

"Sorrow? Endings?" added Yosuke. "Hey, if this thing means that Nanako's gonna…gonna die, then we don't want anything to do with it. You can take it back."

Igor shook his head. "It was never mine to give or to take," he informed them. "This card and this journey belong to the guest…now all that remains is to see if she can find a use for it."

Yosuke, however, wasn't listening to Igor's rationalization. "Minako died when she had this thing," he went on. Nanako could see little drops of sweat building up on his brow. "And Elizabeth, um…"

For some reason, Yosuke looked hesitantly over at Nanako before finishing that statement.

"It's okay," Nanako assured him. "I know about death. Elizabeth's not really dead."

Yosuke sighed. "Riiight…um, anyway. Both of them had something awful happen to them when they were using this card. So, what, is it cursed or something? Is it bad luck?"

"The holder provides the meaning to the card," Igor intoned. "The card has no significance without the holder."

That, thought Nanako, made a lot of sense. After all, she knew that there was no reason to get angry at objects, or things. They couldn't do anything by themselves. People could use them to make a mess, or break them, but that was some person's fault, not the object's fault. Trying to blame a thing for something that was really a person's fault counted as "not accepting responsibility," and responsibility was definitely a part of changing and growing up. Actually, thought Nanako with just a twinge of regret, responsibility was usually the less fun part, but…it wasn't really new. Nanako had been taking on new responsibilities all the time since he mother had died.

"That makes no sense!" shouted Yosuke. "Seriously, why don't you guys ever make any sense? Everything you say is just some kind of crazy riddle. Ugh, I wish Yu and Minako were here…they've always been better at this stuff anyway. Plus, they've got experience, they could probably…"

Nanako squeezed his hand. "I think you're a great leader, Yosuke." She told him. "Big Bro thinks so too! He's very proud of you."

Proud, thought Nanako, may not have been quite the right word to use. Proud was the sort of thing that parents would say to their children when a child came home with a good report from school. Still, Yosuke didn't look nearly as unhappy anymore, so obviously she'd done something right.

"Thanks, Nanako-chan," he muttered. "That…that was nice to hear."

"Are gonna go and check for shadows?" asked Teddie. "I mean, we are already here…"

Yosuke shook his head. He sounded tired. "Nah, not right now," he said. "I've had enough for one day. Besides, Nanako and Junpei already did that patrol. Let's just go home. I have some stuff I need to think about."

As they walked back towards the TV world entrance, Nanako peered up into Yosuke's face. He was thoughtful and quiet, looking much more serious and sad than he usually did.

"Yosuke?" she asked him. "What's wrong?"

He sighed. "I have no idea," he muttered. "I'm supposed to be in charge, now, right? So I'm supposed to be coming up with all the great plans to save the day. How do I even start doing that if I can't figure out what the first step is? It's not like this place comes with a manual…"

"I think," said Nanako thoughtfully, "that we're supposed to do it together. You know, as a team." She remembered the way Teddie had once told her that, too, was now a part of the team, when he'd given her that new pair of TV world glasses. What was there a team for, if they weren't supposed to work together?

"She's right," agreed Teddie. "Let's get everybody together and show them the Thanatos card. Maybe someone will have an idea! Oh, I bet Nao-chan knows all sorts of stuff about this! She's always super smart!"

Yosuke was just opening his mouth to reply to that when Nanako stopped walking. Teddie, walking behind her, almost plowed right into her, and Yosuke had to stop to glance back over his shoulder in confusion.

"What's up?" he asked.

Nanako didn't answer at first. She thought she could hear some noises coming from the entrance to the TV World. "Um," she said, "I think something's going on out there. Something loud. Maybe we should wait…it would be bad if anyone saw us coming out of the TV, right? They'd probably be pretty angry…"

"That's one word for it," agreed Yosuke. "Okay, let's wait and see."

**Meanwhile, in the Junes electronics department…**

Dojima had been looking all over for Nanako. After checking every single room and department in the entire store, he'd finally approached a sales clerk in the electronics department, and had demanded to know what had become of his daughter.

"Um, I…I can't be expected to keep track of every single customer," stammered the clerk helplessly. "If you say she was here with her friends, then maybe she went home with them? Shouldn't you try calling?"

"I did call!' shouted Dojima, making the clerk wince. "I called all of them! No one is picking up their phones! Don't you guys have a security system? Let me see the tapes. You've seen the news, there's a murderer out there! Again! I need to find my daughter!"

"I…I don't have the authorization…" began the clerk.

Before he'd had a chance to finish, however, Dojima heard footsteps running up behind him, and turned to see Minako rushing and stumbling through the door.

"Dojima-san?" she called frantically. "Dojima-san, where did you…oof!" Unable to see him, she smacked right into his chest, and then sank down the ground, biting her lip. "Ow…"

Dojima just stared at her for a moment in surprise. "Arisato?" he asked, reaching down to give her a hand up. "What the hell are you doing here? I thought I left you at your desk."

"You did…" agreed Minako. "Yu called me from your house. He said you were worried about Nanako. I came running to tell you; she's fine. Apparently Junpei saw her and Yosuke just a few minutes ago, at Daidara's store. They probably went tog et something to eat after that, or to do some shopping. There's really nothing for you to be worried about."

Something in the desperate, hasty assurances that Minako was giving him made Dojima suspicious.

"You came all the way over here just to tell me that?" he asked her. "Why? What's going on?"

"Nothing," breathed Minako. "I just didn't want you to think-!"

Dojima glared at her, although he knew that the effect of the expression was lost. "I'm warning you," he began. "If you're hiding something from me, I'm not going to sit back and just let you get away with it. Enough has gone on around here that I've been kept out of, but when it comes to Nanako…"

"I…I'm going to get the manager," squeaked the clerk, and he ran off.

Minako, apparently unperturbed by Dojima's ire, brushed herself off. "Sir, let's go back to the station," she cajoled him. "If you want, we can send out a patrol to look for her, but I'm really not concerned. After all, Yosuke and Teddie hang out with Nanako all the time. They love her, they'd never let anything happen to her. Yu isn't worried. There's nothing to panic about."

Then, before Minako had even finished speaking, Nanako fell out of the TV right next to where Dojima was standing.

"Oh," she said. "um…oops!"

Yosuke, who stumbled out right after her, mumbled, "I told you we should have waited a little longer…this is all your fault, Ted!"

"Me? How is it my fault! I was being bear-y patient!" insisted Teddie.

"Wha-?" stammered Dojima. "Nanako? Hanamura? Where did you come from all of a sudden?"

"Uh…" Yosuke look flustered for a moment. "Food court? I mean, the food court, sir! There's a back entrance, behind the…TV! Yeah. Employees only, you know."

Dojima just stared at them. Maybe, he thought, Yu had been right about Dojima needing to spend less time at work, and more time asleep. Did he really think he'd just seen his daughter and her two friends fall out of a television set? What kind of a nutcase was he turning into?

"I'm starting to hallucinate," he grumbled. "Great. Just great. Just what we need right now, a batshit police detective…"

Minako found his shoulder, and patted him comfortingly on it. "It's probably the caffeine withdrawal, sir," she told him sympathetically. "I've heard that can do really terrible things to people." Taking him gently by the arm, she began to lead him out of the electronics department. "Let's go back to the station," she insisted. "I'll make you a cup of coffee, we'll get some work done, and have a very productive day. How about that?"

"Don't talk down to me like I'm some crazy old coot," muttered Dojima, but the fight had gone out of him. "You're taking a vacation next week, right? Huh, maybe I should think about taking some time off, too…"

Just before they left the store, he turned around, and leveled his best attempt at a menacing stare at Nanako and Yosuke. "You," he said to Nanako. "Go home. Go help your cousin with his homework. And you," he added, pointing accusingly at Yosuke and Teddie, "stop dragging my daughter around on your crazy adventures. You're in college, aren't you? Shouldn't you be off getting into trouble and making bad choices? Anyway, you leave Nanako out of it. That's an order."

Was it his imagination, he wondered, or did Yosuke and Teddie look strangely relieved as they watched him walking away?


	7. Six - December 19

**Author's Note: **Head's up, my beloved and beautiful readers! For those of you who have been reading both **Piecekeeping** and **Messiah**, I have been throwing in a little cue in each of the chapters to try and make sure that it's easy for you to figure out how the timelines of the two stories match up. There's a notable overlap in tonight's two updates, but if you're not reading carefully, you might miss it!

**Six – December 19**

The next day, Dad expressly forbid Nanako from going to Junes with the others.

"It's not right," he insisted, "for a kid your age to spend all of your time hanging out with a bunch of college guys."

Nanako had frowned at him. "You don't like it when I hang out with Big Bro? But…I thought you said you wanted us to be a real family."

That had, apparently, flustered Dad for a moment, which had made Nanako feel both guilty and gleeful in the same moment. "Of course we're a family," he'd said finally. "It's not your cousin that I'm worried about. It's his friends. They're much older than you, and they have different life experiences, and…"

"And you don't like them?" Nanako had asked.

Eventually Dad had given up. "I like them," he said. "I think they're great. Just…just do me a favor, and try to behave a little more like a lady. You're growing up, Nanako. It's time for you to start acting like it."

That had given Nanako plenty of food for thought. Was she not acting grown up enough? What would her mother have said, if she could have seen the people that Nanako was playing with? What did it mean to act like "a lady?" Didn't grown-up ladies hang out with men all the time? After all, Minako did it, and so did Yukiko, Chie, and Naoto and Rise…it just didn't make sense. If they were doing the things that grownups were supposed to do, then why were they too grown up for a growing girl to play with? For once, she was a little annoyed at Dad. He was being unreasonable.

In the end, though, she did what he asked her to do. She usually did. Dad was sometimes harsh, and sometimes didn't explain himself very well, but she loved him anyway. As Yu had helped her finally realized, he loved her very, very much. That was exactly the reason he was so…so much of a Dad sometimes.

She was, therefore, still at home that day when Yu finally slammed shut one of his textbooks, and took a deep, calming breath.

"I can't look at another equation," he said out loud. "Just reading the same things over and over again is starting to make me dizzy."

"Oh!" that didn't sound good "Do you want to take a rest?" asked Nanako.

Stretching his arms up over his head, Yu yawned. "Not exactly," he managed. "I think I need a change of pace Maybe I'll go to the library and do some research for one of my other courses. Do you want to come with me? You've been looking bored all day long. Maybe we can find something fun to read together."

"Yes!" Nanako agreed instantly. Finally, a chance to get out of the house…and besides, she still hadn't been able to show her cousin that she'd moved up again in her reading levels at school. Even her teacher said that Nanako was very advanced in reading for her age. Maybe she was even ready to have a look at the third grade books!

They set off together for the bus stop, and Nanako absolutely refused to ride on Yu's lap. "I'm too old for that," she insisted, when he offered. "I'm heavy. Your legs would hurt."

"No, they wouldn't," he said, and for some reason he sounded a little bit sad. Nanako wondered if maybe he, like Dad, was having a lot of feelings about the fact that she was "growing up."

Instead, she insisted on helping him push the chair, and Yu, for once, didn't argue the point. They took the bus all the way to the local library, a place that Nanako's teacher had only recently brought them to on a field trip. Nanako had a brand new, shiny library card that she was proud to show off at the front desk. Yu, she knew, didn't have an Inaba library card, but she promised that she'd let him take out a book with hers, if he was sure to return it before the end of vacation.

When he wheeled himself off to do some research in the adult sections, Nanako sat herself down at one of the library computers to try and find chapter books that might impress him. It was only after she'd completed a few dissatisfying searches on animals and policemen that a new thought struck her. What was it that Igor had been talking about, the other day? He'd been telling her and Yosuke all about what death meant. It hadn't been the same kind of death that she thought of when people asked her what had happened to her mother. It had been a different kind of death, the kind of death that really meant something else, like change, or new beginnings

"Tarot cards," Nanako mumbled to herself, as she typed, misspelled, and then retyped the words into the computer. That was right, wasn't it? She was pretty sure that was the word for what she was looking for. If not, she'd probably find out as soon as she opened the book.

Unexpectedly, as she was doing her search, one of her classmates walked by. He waved at her, and Nanako looked away from the screen long enough to smile back in response.

"Hey, Nana-chan!" he said. "Are you having a good vacation?"

"Yes, thank you, Haru-kun." she said. "My Big Bro came to visit for the whole break!"

"What are you doing at the library?" asked Haru. "I'm looking for books about robots."

Nanako puffed herself up importantly, as she told him, "I am doing research."

**That evening, at the Junes food court…**

It was already dark out when Yosuke finally finished up with work, and went outside to join his friends who were clustered around a table in the food court.

Kanji and Naoto, who had been responsible for that day's patrol, had apparently just come out of the Velvet Room, and were in the process of regaling the others with the tales of what they'd found there.

"There was this big old shadow," Kanji was saying enthusiastically, "sitting right outside the door to Minako's mind door thing, and it had these sharp-looking claws, and was getting ready to break through, so I got my persona out, and started going after it. It turned around took a swipe at Naoto, and she went down, so my persona swung at it and knocked it right off its feet, bam! Just like that."

"Wow, Naoto," said Rise, with a malicious little twinkle in her eye. "Did Kanji-kun really save you like that? That's awfully manly of him…"

Kanji blushed bright red, and Naoto looked extremely displeased. "I was just fine," she explained gloomily. "His help was unnecessary. I had the situation under control."

Partly to save Naoto's dignity, and partly because he was tired and didn't want to spend the whole night listening to the two of them bicker, Yosuke sat down in a chair and addressed the group. "Hey, guys," he said, "Come on, we're supposed to be having a meeting, not messing around."

"Aww, Yosuke," whined Rise. "It's just a little fun…how come you're so serious lately? You need to loosen up. College made you all mean."

Yosuke shook his head impatiently. "We don't have time to 'loosen up,'" he insisted. "We're on a mission here. I thought we all agreed that we were trying to end the Velvet Room problem for good."

"It doesn't really work like that," murmured Yukiko. "We can't just make it go away by getting serious about it. We need some ideas, something to go on."

"Yeah," agreed Chie glumly. "At this rate, we're just gonna run ourselves into the ground and burn out…"

"Okay," agreed Yosuke, "then let's come up with some ideas. What do we know?"

He looked around at the group, but no one seemed eager to volunteer.

"Um…we know that there are shadows suddenly appearing inside Yu and Minako's brains," said Chie eventually. "That's…well, that's bad."

"Right," agreed Yosuke. "What else?"

"The inner sanctums of Yu-kun and Minako-chan's minds are protected by doors that serve as 'thresholds,'" continued Naoto, "but which are obviously not impervious to the shadows. If we are able to permanently seal off the doors, then the minds themselves will remain protected until and unless the seal is breached. Is that about right?"

"That's…yeah, that's pretty much it." Yosuke was sort of disappointed. Somehow, he had hoped that hearing it all out loud would spark a moment of genius in him, and would suddenly allow him to come up with the plan that would be brilliant and clever enough to solve the whole problem and save the day. That, obviously, wasn't going to happen.

"I think we need help," sighed Rise. "This is just too much. I don't even know where to start thinking about it…"

She had taken the words right out of his mouth. Yosuke looked around at a bunch of dejected faces. Things hadn't ever seemed quite this bleak before, not even when they'd been faced with the series of murders that had led them to discover their persona ability in the first place.

"Help?" asked Junpei. "Yeah…yeah, that's not a bad idea."

Yosuke blinked. He hadn't really taken much notice of Junpei, whom he still didn't really consider a part of the team, even if he was making the extra effort for Minako's sake.

"We had lots of help the first time, right?" Junpei continued. "I mean, the whole gang was here! All the guys from SEES, like Akihiko-san, and Mitsuru-san, and Fuuka…Akihiko-san and Mitsuru-san are part of this thing now, some organization run by Mitsuru's family that deals with fighting shadows. I bet they'd come if we asked them. Of course they would. Minako's one of us…I mean, one of them."

"I would enjoy the opportunity to speak with Ken-kun again," murmured Naoto thoughtfully. "A very interesting boy…very intelligent for his age. He really might be an asset."

"Mitsuru-san's fighting the shadows too?" asked Yukiko. "She did seem like the type who wouldn't be willing to let things go so easily…"

Yosuke tried not to jump at Junpei's idea. After all, just bringing in more people wasn't going to solve the problem. It wasn't a manpower issue. Didn't any of them remember what Igor had said? The way to seal off the doors was similar to the way Minako and Junpei had originally sealed Nyx. That meant that someone might have to die. Did they really want to get more people involved who might get hurt in the process?

"Hey, guys," he began.

Nobody, unfortunately, seemed to be listening.

"Minako and I are going to Iwatodai in a couple of days," Junpei was saying. "We're taking a vacation. When we get there, I'll ask the guys if they want to come back with us! We can all celebrate the Christmas holidays together! How about it, huh? Am I good at this thinking game, or what?"

Murmurs of agreement and enthusiasm rippled around the table. Everyone seemed to be in favor. Junpei beamed.

As the party began to break up for the evening, and everyone started off in their separate directions, Yosuke caught up with Junpei and pulled him aside.

"What about keeping Minako out of this?" he asked, accusingly. "I thought you wanted to try to stay away from stuff that might bring back bad memories, stuff that might make all of this too much like what happened before."

Junpei gave Yosuke a surly little shrug. "Yeah, but I…I mean, she could die, man. It's complicated."

"You're telling me," muttered Yosuke.

"Anyway," finished Junpei, "All I'm doing is throwing some ideas around. You're the leader, right? So, you figure it out. All you do is sit around saying the same things and looking pissed off all the time. If you can't take the heat, then say something already, before someone gets hurt."

"Something," mumbled Yosuke, under his breath.

"Huh?" asked Junpei/. "What did you say?"

Yosuke shook his head. "Nothing," he said. "I didn't say anything."


	8. Seven - December 20

**Author's Note: **Both recent story updates have Yu in them! Yay for Yu! I've missed him.

And now, Nanako teaches us some important things about the very nature of persona. This is essentially the end of the first part of the story, the multi-chapter prologue, if you will. Sorry that it's been a little bit slow going, I think I'm spending more time on character development in this one than I have previously. I like character development…I think we might actually need some more of it.

Stay tuned for more fun either this evening or tomorrow morning…I've got a multi-hour metro ride today, so I'll probably come home from rehearsal with something to share with you.

**Seven – December 20**

"Big Bro?" asked Nanako. "Will you help me with something?"

Yu looked up from where he was sitting in front of the couch, having temporarily abandoned his homework in favor of watching a news program. "With what?" he asked.

Nanako hesitantly presented the book she'd picked up at the library the day before. She'd checked it out quickly before he'd returned from his research, and had been careful not to show it to him up until now. For some reason, she felt like he might not be happy about her doing her own special research.

Still, when she'd gotten home and opened "The Magic of Tarot," even Nanako had been forced to admit that she was out of her league. This book was not at a first grade reading level. It was not at a third grade reading level. As far as she could tell, it wasn't at any reading level that she had ever seen. Although there were big, beautiful pictures on every page, which had attracted her to the book in the first place, some of the words had so many letters that just spending time sounding them out made her want to take a nap.

"Um, can you read with me for a bit?" she asked. "I was trying to read it by myself, but some of these pages are kind of hard…"

Yu took the book that she handed to him, and glanced at the cover. She saw him raise his eyebrows in surprise as he read the title. "The Magic of Tarot," he murmured. "So, that's what you were looking for at the library."

Nanako bit her lip. "Are you mad?" she asked.

"What? No, of course I'm not mad." Yu shook his head quickly. "It makes sense that you'd want to know more about this."

"My teacher says, "Nanako told him, "that we're learning how to read so that we can use books to help teach ourselves how to learn."

"Yeah," said Yu, nodding. "That…isn't exactly how I'd put it for a first grader, but I think it sounds about right."

Nanako crawled up near to him on the couch, and they opened the book together. "I want to read about Icarus," she said. "Can we find him?"

Yu began turning the pages. "Icarus won't be in here," he told her, "but we can find what kind of persona he is. Icarus is a fool, right? So, let's look for the 'Fool' arcana…"

Nanako recognized the word "Fool" only a few pages into the text. She put her finger on it to stop Yu turning the pages. There was a picture on the page as well, although it was of a card that Nanak o had never seen, with a confused-looking dancing man wearing a very silly hat. "What does this part say?" she asked.

"The Fool," read Yu carefully, "has no number, or is listed as holding the number zero."

Nanako wrinkled her nose. "Zero? It's not nice to call someone a 'zero.' There's a boy at school that does that on the playground when he doesn't get picked first for soccer. I asked my teacher what it meant, and she said that it was like calling someone a 'loser.'"

"Shh," said Yu. "If you're going to listen, then you can't talk at the same time."

Nanako went quiet, slightly embarrassed.

"The Fool," read Yu again, "has no number, or is listed as the number zero. Many people assume the fool to be the hero of the story told by the cards of the major arcana. The other arcana dictate what is known as the "Fool's journey," or the path that he or she takes through life. So," he said, looking away from the page for a moment, "Saying that the fool represents the number zero just means that the fool is learning and growing, and becoming a person throughout the story. The fool hasn't learned anything yet at the beginning. The journey teaches him. Does that make sense?"

Nanako nodded silently.

Yu smiled. "You can talk now," he told her. "I'm finished reading for the moment."

"Oh," said Nanako. "Yes, I think I understand. Um, can we look at another page? I want to see the…" She had to think for a moment before she remembered which card she wanted. "Oh, I want to see the 'justice' one."

Yu dutifully turned the pages until he found a page featuring a picture of a person with a crown, maybe a king, sitting on a throne. "The 'Justice' arcana," read Yu, "represents intelligence, responsibility, rationalization and clear thinking."

"I have two," Nanako reminded him. "One looks like an angel, and the other is…um, well she's sort of an angel without wings!"

Yu smiled at her. "So are you," he said. "Anything else?"

"Yes," said Nanako, taking a deep breath. "I want to find the page about the 'death' card."

She had expected Yu to refuse, or to ask questions. Instead, he just paused for a moment, frowned, and then began turning the pages again without saying a word. That made Nanako a bit uncomfortable. She might have felt better if he'd asked. Maybe, she thought, Yosuke had already told him about the Thanatos card. Then again, she didn't think that was something that Yosuke would do…

The picture on the page about death was a little bit frightening. It looked like a group of people, all standing around while they watched an evil-looking man with a skull where his head should be threatening someone in shining yellow clothes.

"Death," read Yu. "The interpretation of this card is usually somewhat vague or uncertain. It can mean sadness, loss, and the end of life, or can mean change, transformation, or regeneration. Death often marks the ending of one thing, and the subsequent beginning of another."

"What does 'subsequent' mean?" asked Nanako.

"It means 'something that happens after something else,'" murmured Yu absently. "Does that scare you?"

Nanako was puzzled. "Does what scare me? Something happening after something else?"

"No," insisted Yu, "the idea of death."

"Not really," said Nanako honestly. "Should I be scared?"

Closing the book, Yu wrapped an arm around Nanako's shoulders. "No," he assured her. "Of course not. After all, I would never let anything happen to you."

As Nanako snuggled against her cousin's shoulder, the phone rang.

"One sec," said Yu, wheeling himself across the room. "Let me get that. Then we can read something else, just for fun."

While Yu talked on the phone, Nanako sat on the couch and thought hard about what he had said. The fool card was supposed to be a hero. Maybe Icarus was her hero, the one who saved everybody. After all, he'd saved them in the Velvet Room when his wings caught on fire. He'd protected all of them! That was what a hero was supposed to do, wasn't it? He was going to go on a journey. Would he go far away from her? She didn't like the sound of that. He couldn't protect her or her friends anymore if he went too far away. Journeys, too, could be dangerous.

The "Justice" card was different, though. She definitely liked the idea of "responsibility" and "clear thinking." Did that mean that those cards were really smart? Dad was always talking about her growing up to smart and "responsible," so those cards seemed like very good ones to have.

There was more, though, to this than just being smart. She knew that. If she was going to protect her Big Bro, and all the rest of her friends, she needed to be smart and strong, too.

"Big Bro?" she asked, as Yu hung up the phone and came back to the sofa. "How did you get so strong?"

Yu looked thoughtful. "You mean, how did my personas get so strong?"

That wasn't exactly what Nanako had meant, but she decided not to correct him.

"It's all about the people you connect with," said Yu. "Personas get stronger through social bonds…let's see, how can I put this." He paused for a moment, and then added, "The more people you know, and the closer friends that you make, the stronger your personas become. Your best friends make for your strongest personas."

"Oh!' Nanako was delighted. That didn't sound difficult at all. In fact, it sounded like fun. She loved making new friends.

"Sometimes, though," cautioned Yu, more sternly than usual, "You have to learn things about people that you'd rather not know. Sometimes people can surprise you."

That, unfortunately, made less sense. Why would Nanako not want to know things about her closest friends? After all, best friends told each other everything. That was what it meant to be a best friend. There was no reason why she wouldn't want to know about the things her best friends wanted to tell her.

Yu looked as though he had more to say, but at that moment, the doorbell rang. Nanako ran over to open it, revealing Chie and Yukiko, both in their running clothes. Chie grinned when she saw Nanako.

"Well?" she asked. "Ready for our first workout session of the winter break, Nanako-chan?"

"Yay!' Nanako was thrilled. "Is Yukiko coming too?"

Yukiko looked tired, but she smiled. "It…does seem that way," she admitted. "I'm afraid that I'm not in the same shape that Chie is, but…"

Chie buffeted Yukiko playfully on the shoulder. "Then we'd better start working harder so that we can get you there! Come on! I bet it'll help you get all the college boys. After all, guys love a girl who can challenge them!"

Yukiko frowned. "I…don't know where you're getting this stuff," She admitted. Are you sure about that?"

Before leaving, Nanako turned around to wave at Yu. "I'm going to train with Chie and Yukiko," she told him, somewhat unnecessarily.

Yu just nodded. "Have fun," he told her.

A twinge of guilt crept across Nanako's mind, as she remembered that Dad had told her not to go out and play all day with the older kids. "Um," she murmured, "if Dad calls…"

Yu shook his head. "I'll tell him you went out with a friend," he assured her. "That's not a lie, is it?"

Nanako was relieved. "Nope!" She said. "Okay! Thanks! Bye!"

As she closed the door behind her, Nanako looked up at the two older girls, remembering what Yu had told her about helping her persona get stronger. She had to make better friends, he'd said. Well, maybe this was a good place to start.

"Ready?" asked Chie.

Nanako struck her toughest, most heroic pose. "Ready!"

**Meanwhile, at the police station…**

Dojima watched Minako hang up the phone.

"What was that all about?" he asked.

"Oh." Minako was startled. Apparently she hadn't expected him to be listening in. "Nothing, sir. Just a personal call."

"Yeah, well," he muttered, "you can make those on your own time."

They sat for a few moments in silence, before he spoke again. "That was my nephew on the phone, wasn't it?"

"Yes," murmured Minako. "Yu and are going to hang out after work."

Dojima frowned. "You two hang out a lot these days, don't you?"

Minako sighed. "Dojima-san," she said carefully, "we have been through this before. Many times before, actually. You don't want to know the answers to these questions. It wouldn't help you sleep any better at night."

"Yeah, well," growled Dojima, "I don't sleep too well as it is. Couldn't make much a difference. I'm tired of everyone tiptoeing around me all the time. It's not like I don't notice. It was different when it was just you and the rest of them…you're almost adults. You can make your own choices. Now, though, you've got Nanako involved. Don't lie to me, Arisato…I know you do."

Minako wisely did not say anything. Dojima knew he had her in an uncomfortable position, which was exactly where he wanted her. Of all of them, Minako was the youngest, and so he figured she probably had the least experience with all of this. She'd have to be the easiest to break. Besides, Dojima was her boss. She was supposed to answer his questions.

"Where did Hanamura and Nanako come from, the other day?" he pressed her. "When we found them in the electronics department at Junes. What were they up to?"

"They fell out of the TV," said Minako tiredly.

Dojima glowered at her. "Don't give me that," he snapped. "I want answers. Real answers. This is my daughter we're talking about here. I need to know that she's not in any danger."

Unexpectedly, Minako snapped. "I can't give you that," she insisted, much more harshly than he'd heard her speak before. After a deep breath, and a moment's pause to collect herself, she added, more sedately, "Nothing I can say is going to make you feel any safer. I'm not going to convince you that everything is going to be okay, because I can't."

There was something hollow and strained in Minako's voice that sent a shudder down Dojima's spine. Suddenly, she didn't look so young anymore. She looked strangely old and exhausted.

"Please, Dojima-san," she begged him. "Let it go. For everyone's sake."

Now, though, there was no way Dojima could let it go. Not after seeing that. He turned back to his desk, and let Minako go back to hers, but even the murder case he was supposed to be focused on wasn't holding much power over his imagination anymore.

Enough was enough. This couldn't go on. He was going to find out what was really happening here, no matter who he had to go through to do it.


	9. Eight - December 21 and 22

**Author's Note: **Unfortunately, I have severely wounded my foot. Apparently, it may take more than one doctor and several days to sort this out, so in the meantime, I will be spending a lot of time lying in bed with my foot elevated.

While this will make it difficult to get some important things done, it does give me plenty of chance to write.

I have no idea how I am going to get through the work day tomorrow without being allowed to use my foot, though…

In any case, I'm feeling a little grumpy and overtaxed, today, so here's some Dojima!

**Eight – December 21/22**

Two days ago, Dojima had resolved that, no matter what the obstacles he might face, he would find out the truth behind the mysterious crap that his nephew and now his daughter were involved with. All day on the 21rst, he had stewed and brooded about different ways that he might have them tailed, or talk them into corners to either force or coerce them into telling him what was really going on.

Then, on the 22nd, the unthinkable happened.

Arisato didn't come into work.

The phone on his desk had not stopped ringing the entire morning. The first couple of times that it had happened, he'd ignored it, assuming that someone else was going to pick it up. When it kept ringing, and he'd eventually been provoked into answering it, he'd discovered that there was almost always some local resident on the other end of the line, insisting that they just had to tell him about the space alien they'd just sighted in their backyard, or the fact that they were convinced that their supposedly law-abiding spouse of five or six years was actually committing horrible crimes, ranging from the more mundane adultery, to the more fantastic and less believable axe murders.

"What the hell is wrong with these people?" he asked of no one in particular, after he'd hung up from his fourth insane "tip" call of the morning. "This is a police station we're running here, not a hotline for nutjobs!

Then, various patrol officers and other employees of the station had begun approaching the desk to ask questions. Where was that document he'd had to sign off on the day before? He had no idea he'd even signed it. Had he approved the leave that they'd asked for, or the change of patrol that they'd requested three weeks before? He couldn't even remember their names, let alone what days they were supposed to be on or off shift.

Throughout it all, Dojima could not shake that horribly, gut-wrenchingly awake feeling that came only when someone had forgotten to get him a cup of coffee.

There was only so much of this that he could take. He lasted about three hours in stoic, tortured silence until finally, as the caffeine-deprivation shakes began to set in, he stood up from his desk and bellowed, "Where the hell is Arisato?"

Several people looked up in alarm, and then they all, as one body, glanced over at the one unfortunate rookie who had been caught a little bit too close for comfort to Dojima's desk.

"Uh," said the rookie, blushing under the expectant stares of most of the rest of the station employees, "Sir, I think Miss Minako is on vacation."

"I never authorized any vacation," growled Dojima.

The rookie shook his head miserably. "Actually, sir, um, you did. We…we were all there. You, um, you told her to go and have a good Christmas, sir."

Dojima glowered balefully down at his empty coffee mug. He needed to handle this situation carefully. First, he would make a new cup of coffee. Then, he would find someone to yell at. Then, he would figure out who he could rope into answering all of these goddamn phone calls.

For the first time in longer than he cared to remember, Dojima wondered where Adachi was when he needed him.

Taking a deep breath, he did his best to relax. Arisato was always telling him that he'd hurt himself if he didn't stop bellowing at everyone and blowing a fuse every time something went wrong. She was, he had to admit, probably right. Much as he hated to think too hard about, it he wasn't as young as he'd once been. Thinking about all those kids getting themselves into more and more trouble all the time certainly wasn't helping him in that department.

Back in his day, he was sure, children respected their elders. Okay, maybe not all the time. Maybe even he, once or twice, had gotten into a few fights with his father, and even his mother. In fact, he and Chisato had gotten married against the wishes of her mother and father, who were, he supposed, technically also his elders. Still, that was and would remain beside the point. The point was that children did know what was good for them, and it was both his moral duty and his duty as a detective to get to the bottom of this.

The surveillance photos of the Junes electronics department had been delivered to his desk an hour or so before, just as he'd requested. Junes, which was the most popular spot for local attempted robberies, did have pretty decent security equipment, and the photos gave him a good look at everyone and everything that had come in and out of the electronics department in the past week. There was Yu, in his chair, and that weird kid Teddie, who always seemed to be dressed as the Junes mascot, even when he wasn't working. There was Hanamura, Satonaka, the Amagi girl…Dojima went through the list of his nephew's closest friends in his head, as he leafed through photos of each of them coming in and out of the electronics department. There were even a few photos of Yu and Minako, just sitting and talking in front of one of the big TVs.

There was nothing in the photos that was even a little bit out of the ordinary. Well, okay, a bunch of teenagers spending all of their free time at the local department store was pretty ordinary, too. Honestly, when he tried to think of anything that he could use to give himself grounds for his suspicions, there wasn't anything he could talk about in front of the rest of the force. Nobody was going to believe that Yu had suddenly come back to life. Nobody was going to believe that Yu's inability to walk, which the doctors claimed had no basis in medical fact, came from something that had happened to him during his re-animation. Dojima himself didn't believe all that crap that even Adachi had tried to feed him, about jumping into TVs and killing people by forcing them to face some weird monster creatures that looked just like they did. He had nothing based in fact at all, actually, to go on. There were only his suspicions, which had been building and mounting for far, far too long.

Then, just as he was about to give up on the photographs and go back to his regularly scheduled program of brooding, grumbling, and coffee, Dojima saw something in one of the photos that made his jaw drop.

"Wha-? But, that's impossible," he muttered to himself, peering more closely into the image in front of him. "That' can't be right."

Getting to his feet, he found his coat, and shoved one arm into it, stalking around his desk and heading for the door.

"I'll be back later," he told the room at large.

Even as he left the building, the phone began to ring again. Unconsciously, he started to walk a little faster.

**Meanwhile, at the Junes food court…**

Nanako was ready. She had spent time reading up on the different kinds of persona in her new "Magic of Tarot" book, and she now had questions she wanted to ask Igor. Something interesting had occurred to her while she and Yu were reading. Once, Igor had showed her something that he called "fusion." He'd taken her Icarus, and then had shown her how Icarus and Angel, together, could make a new persona, who became her Dawn. If Icarus and Angel could make Dawn, what could Dawn and this one called Thanatos make?

She was particularly interested in finding out about that because of something the book had said. Dawn was a "justice" card, or a card that could mean things like "rebirth." Thanatos was a "death" card, and rebirth was…well, the opposite of death, wasn't it? If she was honest with herself, she did have to admit that she'd had to ask Yu about the word "rebirth," to make sure that she had it right. What would happen if Thanatos and Dawn made a persona together? What would that do? Could she have death and rebirth at the same time?

With those thoughts at the forefront of her mind, Nanako was just itching to get back into the Velvet Room.

Yosuke, who was supposed to on patrol with her today, looked a lot less happy about it.

"Yosuke?" she asked, as they got up from the table and walked into the electronics department together, "What's wrong? You look, um…" The word "tired," thought Nanako, didn't quite describe the way Yosuke looked. She didn't actually know a good word for it.

"What?" asked Yosuke distractedly. "Oh, yeah, sorry. I'm okay. Haven't…been getting much sleep. And this is supposed to be winter break!" He laughed, but it didn't sound like a real laugh. It sounded just as tired, thought Nanako, as the rest of him did.

"Well, okay." Nanako figured it might be one of those "grownup things" that Dad always talked about when she caught him sitting up late on the sofa, staring at the floor, or at nothing at all. It was probably better to leave him alone about it. She reached out and put her hand through the TV, and was just about to climb inside when she heard a strangled sort of half-gasp, half-grunt from behind her.

That was a very familiar sound. Nanako spun instantly around. "Oh," she murmured, her heart sinking. "Um…hi, Dad!"

Dad was standing behind her with his mouth hanging open, looking as though he wanted to say something. Nanako, ever the dutiful daughter, waited patiently for him to choose the right words.

"No way," muttered Yosuke. "Not now…dude, what are we gonna-?"

"Nanako," began Dojima slowly. "What…how…why do you have your hand in that TV?"

"Um…" Nanako blinked. "Because I have to go inside, to help Yosuke protect Minako and Yu from the bad shadows in their brains? I promise, I didn't break it! It's still good, see?" To demonstrate, she pulled her hand back out of the TV again.

Dad made a strange noise that sounded like a combination of "Ugh," and "Erk."

"We can't make a scene here," Yosuke was saying. "What if other people get curious? Somebody's gonna see us. Jeez…Dojima-san, sir, I am really, really, unbelievably sorry about this."

"What are you-?" began Dad.

Before he had time to finish the sentence, however, Yosuke ran around behind him, grabbed him by both arms, and hauled him forward into the TV. The last thing Nanako heard Dad say, before he and Yosuke both disappeared into the screen, was, "Hey! Hanamura! Get your hands off-!"

Then, they were both gone, leaving Nanako still staring dumbfounded at the TV. As quickly as she could, she hurried to jump through and join them.

After the fuzzy feeling of going through the screen finally stopped spinning her around, Nanako looked up and saw that Dad was still sitting on the floor of the TV world, just staring around him in silent confusion. Yosuke was standing over his shoulder, waving his hands helplessly in the air.

"This," she hissed at him, "was not a very good idea!"

"Well?" asked Yosuke, "I panicked, okay? What was I supposed to do? It was too late, he'd already seen you!"

"You should have let me handle it!" insisted Nanako, in the voice she reserved for the silliest and most difficult boys on the playground. "He's _my_ Dad!"

"N-Nanako," mumbled Dojima. "Nanako? Where…where are we? Are you okay?"

Yosuke sighed heavily. "Let's just get him back out of here, fast, before the shadows come after him, okay? Sometimes, when people come into the TV world for the first time, they meet their shadow self here, and I don't even want to think about what Dojima-san's shadow self would be like…oh, man." Pausing for a moment, Yosuke frowned, then added, "Hey, you never faced your shadow self, did you, Nanako-chan? I wonder why…"

Nanako didn't think that was very important right now. She also wasn't totally sure what Yosuke was talking about, but it sounded bad. If big, bad shadows were going to come after her Dad, then they had to do something about it right now.

"Let's take him into the Velvet Room!" she said. "Igor doesn't let any shadows in there! Not into the first part, anyway. That's a special place. It's safe."

"No," said Yosuke. "We can't do that! People without personas can't go in there, remember? Just like Minako and Yu. Besides, even if we did get him in there, then he'd see Adach-!"

Yosuke stopped. He and Nanako both took a nervous look at Dad.

"Come on," sighed Yosuke. "Let's just…here, you get his other arm."


	10. Nine - December 22

**Author's Note: **I was totally ready to write this chapter, and then I read **Miss Hanamura**'s newest offering and now I am, like, staring at the blank page just wishing I could make words do the magical things that she can make words do.

Go read it. Again, you can go do that right now. This chapter isn't going anywhere, and it'll be here when you get back, although after reading her stuff, you may just want to curl up in an introspective corner for a few minutes instead…

Anyway, here's some more Dojima. Just a quick heads up, there is going to be some significant back-and-forth between **Piecekeeping** and **Messiah** over the next couple of days. If you're having fun reading this one, it might be worth reading the other one just to make sure you get the full story of what's going on with Minako while these guys are sorting stuff out on their end…

**Nine – December 22**

Dojima did not feel well. The dizzy, fuzzy, nauseating feeling that had had taken a hold on him ever since his inexplicable trip into the TV was not sitting well inside him, and all he kept thinking was that he was really, really getting too old for this sort of thing.

"Tell me again," he mumbled. "Slowly, this time. From the beginning."

Hanamura, who was sitting at a Junes food court table just opposite him, sighed wearily.  
"Dojima-san, sir,"he said, sounding as patient at Dojima supposed he could do under the circumstances, "It isn't gonna make any more sense the third time, okay? I can't explain what's happening here. We all just sort of…accept it. After a while, you have to. You just get used to it. There's a lot of stuff about the TV world that even we don't know about."

"So," repeated Dojima, for what he absently agreed was probably the third or fourth time, "You're telling me that there's another world, a world inside the TV screen."

"Yeah," muttered Hanamura.

"And this world," continued Dojima carefully, "is some kind of…other reality, where people turn into shadowy monsters."

This time, Hanamura shook his head. "People don't turn into anything," he corrected him. "People are people., It's just that once you go in there, sometimes your soul gets away from you and shows you the monster that you could be if you were, um…wait, let me try again."

Dojima just frowned. "No," he said. "No, I don't…its ridiculous. It doesn't make any sense. You Maybe you did some kind of trick, some new fangled teenage prank. I can't believe that-!"

Suddenly, Dojima heard the sounds of wheels against the pavement, and then Yu pulled himself around the corner and into the food court.

"Thank god you're here!" exclaimed Hanamura. "Okay, wait, before you get angry, I gotta tell you, there weren't that many other options. It was too late. He'd already seen us, and I figured that-!"

"It's fine," insisted Yu. "I knew that something like this had to happen, sooner or later. After everything that's happened lately, we can't expect this to stay a secret forever."

Hanamura just stared at him for a moment. "Wha-?" he asked. "You did? We can't? But how am I supposed to-!"

"Yosuke," interrupted Yu. "I'll take care of this. I should have done it a long time ago. Go ahead and take Nanako on patrol. We'll be here when you get back. Keep an eye on her for us, okay?"

"O-okay," agreed Hanamura hesitantly. "Are you sure you don't want me to stick around? You know, um, moral support?"

"Go," insisted Yu. "We're both going to be fine." He looked at Dojima as he said that last bit, and Dojima got the strange, but not entirely unfamiliar sense that this eighteen year old kid might be more of a mature adult than half the guys on the force would ever turn out to be. Once upon a time, that had been a comforting thought, especially since Dojima had been leaving Nanako alone with Yu so often. At the moment, though, it was frankly creepy.

With obvious reluctance, Hanamura and Nanako headed off back into the electronics department.

"Nanako?" called out Dojima. "Nanako! Where are you going?"

"It's okay, Dad!" she promised him, giving him a reassuring little wave. "I'll be back soon!"

Then they were gone, and Dojima was still sitting at the table, feeling dazed, and aware that he should be up and running for the store, instead of letting Nanako go off with Hanamura after what he'd just seen. For some reason, though, his legs didn't seem to be following orders. His head was spinning. The nausea was getting worse. He felt useless, old, and suddenly uncertain of all the things that he thought he'd been sure of only moments before.

"Uncle Dojima?" asked Yu quietly. "How are you feeling?"

"Ugh," mumbled Dojima. "I don't know. Where's Nanako going?"

"Do you really want to know?" asked Yu.

Dojima nodded. "Of course I want to know. She's my daughter. It's my responsibility to make sure that nothing bad happens to her. Yours too, if you'd only-!"

"She's going into a monster-infested manifestation of the inside her mind, or maybe my mind, or Minako's mind, or possibly all three. It's kind of unclear. While she's there, she and Yosuke will probably use the magical parts of their re-awakened souls, called 'personas' to defeat some shadow creatures that are trying, for lack of a better way of describing it, to eat mine and Minako's brains."

Dojima sat very still for a minute. There were a myriad number of questions that he could potentially ask at this moment, but he could only ask one of them at a time. It took him a moment to let one question, the one important question, separate from the jumble that his brain had just become.

"Will she be all right?" he asked finally. "Will Hanamura keep an eye on her? Does he know what he's doing?"

"Yes," said Yu simply. "What else do you want to know?"

Dojima knew that Yu's confident assurance should have relaxed him a little bit. It was at that moment, however, that he remembered the pained, tired look on Minako's face the day before she'd left on vacation, when she'd told that she couldn't give him any real assurance that Nanako and everyone else was really going to be all right.

"I have to go back in there," he said. "I need to be with Nanako. If there are…monsters inside there, then she'll need her father."

Yu just shrugged. "I'm sorry," he said, "but I can't take you back there. I can't go in there myself, anymore. Not without help anyway."

Dojima blinked. "Why?" he asked. That didn't make a lot of sense. After all, it had been Yu who had first told him about the TV World, in an excuse that he'd made some time ago, during his initial stay in Inaba. Back then, Dojima had, of course, assumed that it was some kind of a story, and not a particularly clever or creative one at that. Worlds inside the TV? Mysterious monsters? What kind of an idiotic excuse was that? He'd been disappointed in his nephew's ingenuity.

Now, of course, he felt like he was the idiot, which wasn't a feeling he had ever particularly enjoyed.

Yu, Dojima realized, was still talking. He tried to tune his thoughts back in from their distracted wanderings down memory lane.

"I can't go in anymore," Yu was saying, "and neither can Minako. When we got hurt, almost a year ago, it was because we gave up a part of ourselves inside the TV world. That part of ourselves, that's the part that let us get inside there in the first place. Without it, we can't find our way in. We need someone else to pull or push us through to break the barrier, just like you needed Yosuke or Nanako to help you get in. I…can only assume that it was Yosuke."

Something about that string of nonsensical items at least struck a chord with Dojima. He latched on to the one thing in Yu's monologue that he at least partially understood. "You got hurt," he repeated."You mean, when your legs got injured? That had something to do with all of this?"

Yu nodded. "Except," he said, "that it wasn't my legs. It's my mind that's been injured."

"The doctors say there's nothing wrong with your brain," Dojima reminded him mechanically. "You're not paralyzed. There's no neurological damage, no spinal damage." What he didn't say was that the doctors had informed him that Yu was probably making it up. When they'd told him that, he'd really begun to wonder about that injury, and how it had come about. Yu was a kid, and kids did a lot of stupid things, but Yu was also more of a man than Dojima felt he himself was sometimes, and he didn't believe for a moment that Yu would make something like this up, for attention or for any other reason. There was something seriously wrong, something the doctors couldn't find. Maybe that realization spawned the moment that had really led Dojima to wanting, no, needing to find out the truth about what had been going on in his nephew's life.

"The part of me that got injured is a part that the doctor's can't see on an X-Ray, or a brain scan," Yu continued. "I actually have a theory about what happened. I don't know for sure, but…it's an idea. Do you want to hear it?"

What Dojima really wanted to was to try going back to this morning, and waking up again in a world where everything made sense." Yeah," he said. "Sure."

"Okay," said Yu. Something about the level, rational tones of his voice was both infuriating and relaxing at the same time. "Minako and I gave up part of each of our souls to stave off some big calamity. That part, even I don't completely understand. When we did it, though, we lost our personas, and we got hurt, too. Minako went blind, and I can't move my legs. It seemed random at first, but…the more I think about it, the more I start to figure that it isn't really like that at all. Minako's proud of her ability to see people for who and what they really are. I'm good at getting things done, making everyone's choices, taking action. When her soul got damaged, she started to doubt her abilities more, and so she lost her sight. When mine got damaged, I started to doubt, and I lost my legs. That part of the soul, the one that we don't have any more, it was what kept all the bad things in our heads away. Now that we don't have it, all the bad things are getting back in, and they're cutting off the people we used to be. That's…that's what I think, anyway. In my head it makes sense, but…"

To his own surprise, Dojima let out a bark of laughter. "It makes sense? None of this makes any sense. Not a damn bit of any of it." The more Yu talked, the more frustrated Dojima could feel himself getting. There was no place he could access this, no one spark of light that would let him into the secret. How could he make sense of something that had no basis in what, up until this moment, he had considered reality?

"I'm sorry it had to happen this way," murmured Yu. "There has to have been a better way to break it to you, but…for so long, you just refused to listen to anything we had to say about it. Even Adachi-!"

"Adachi," muttered Dojima. Suddenly, the thing that had been scratching and clawing at the back of his bemused psyche finally got a grip. It wasn't just Yu and Hanamura who had told him all of this stuff before. In Adachi's final confession, during the solution of that first Inaba murder case, he'd tried to explain that he'd been guided to all of this by some sort of evil entity in some kind of TV universe, who had given him powers he didn't know how to control, and had turned him in the direction that he'd taken. Dojima had been more furious than he thought he could have managed, at the time. After everything that had happened, all they'd been through together and all the tormenting betrayals, it seemed that even then Adachi couldn't be bothered to tell him the truth.

Of course, he had told him the truth. Maybe it was the only genuinely honest thing that murdering bastard had ever done in his life, but…somehow, it sank a knife into Dojima. In the end, Adachi had tried to be an honest man, even for just a moment's conversation, and Dojima hadn't given him even that. Now, of course, the guy was dead, and according to Arisato, he'd died trying to save Yu and Nanako's lives. Did that make up for everything that had happened? No, thought Dojima. It couldn't even come close. Still, this suddenly new and alarming take on things left him uncomfortable and even angrier at someone, although he wasn't sure if that someone was Adachi or himself.

"Uncle Dojima," said Yu. "I know this is a lot to take in."

Dojima snorted. "Yeah," he growled.


	11. Ten - December 22 and 23

**Author's Note: **Today, I should really spend most of the day doing homework and Hamlet stuff, but I think I got up just early enough to do another **Piecekeeping** update before it's time to hit the books.

We're gearing up for the big Christmas party! Finally, all the characters back in the same room again!

…

*tries not to cry* So many characters…

**Ten – December 22/23**

When Nanako and Yosuke came back out of the TV, Dad and Yu were just sitting there, not saying anything. Dad had that look on his face that Nanako recognized. It was the only one of his looks that she was really afraid of. He was thinking, thinking very hard, and the answers that he was getting were not making him very happy.

Yosuke and Yu said a few quiet things to each other that Nanako didn't understand. Then Yosuke left, very fast, and Yu, Nanako, and Dad went home together in silence.

Back at the house, Nanako was amazed by the way that Yu seemed to be acting like nothing was wrong. He went into the kitchen and started making something for all of them to eat for lunch. She could hear him wheeling and shuffling around, taking things off of shelves and putting them on to counters. Normally, she would have gone in to help, since Yu's chair sometimes made it hard for him to get around in their small kitchen.

Today, though, Nanako knew that Yu had given her a very special task. Maybe he hadn't said anything out loud, but when he'd left her alone with Dad, that meant that he trusted her to make sure that Dad's head didn't explode.

"Um," she said. That seemed to be as far as she could get. What was she supposed to easy? The black look on Dad's face didn't give her any insight into what he was thinking about.

"It's all over now," he muttered. "This is the end of it. I forbid you to go back into that TV place, Nanako. Do you understand me?"

Nanako had been expecting this. She'd actually been expecting it for a very long time. Dad was very good at telling her not to do things. He did it a lot. Usually, she listened to him, but this time, she just frowned.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I have to go. Everyone needs my help."

Dad shook his head. "You're eight years old," he reminded her firmly. "You're just a kid. You're not supposed to be getting involved in…things like this." Under his breath, he added, "Not that I know what 'this' really is…"

"Dad," began Nanako.

"Your mother wouldn't like it," insisted Dad. "She'd want you to be safe, and to listen to your father. Yu, I will not have her going back in there. You can make your own decisions, for what it's worth, but Nanako-!"

"Mom would like it," interrupted Nanako suddenly. Dad stopped and stared at her. "I don't remember

much, but….you're always telling me that Mom would want me to be brave and to be a big girl, and to be responsible, and to help other people. This is helping other people. This is being responsible. They need me. I have a special power. I can keep people safe."

"Nanako, I cannot and will not risk losing you again," growled Dad. "God knows I haven't been a very good father. I've put you in enough danger already, and maybe if I had realized sooner what was going on…but I will not let you put your life at risk any longer."

In her heart, Nanako knew that Dad was only saying these things because he loved her. She loved him too, very much, even when he was being belligerent and difficult and…just plain too adult to handle. She couldn't help herself, though. She had to say it.

"Would you risk losing Big Bro?" she asked him. "Or Minako? Because they need me. If we are all together, we can all be safe and protect each other. Do you want me to give up on them? I thought you didn't like people who give up on other people. That's what you told me before. Did you lie?"

That seemed to fluster Dad for a moment. "Of course I didn't lie," he told her. "It's just that…that this isn't your responsibility."

Nanako bit her lip. "Then whose is it?" she asked.

Dad didn't have an answer for that. Instead, he looked helplessly at Yu, who had just rolled out of the kitchen holding a plate full of sandwiches.

"Don't look at me," said Yu, holding up one hand as though he was protecting himself from Dad's stare. "I don't tell her what to do. Nanako makes her own decisions."

"Just like Chisato," muttered Dad. "I can see it more and more every day, goddamnit. Fine. Then if she's going in there, so am I. I don't care if I don't have one of those…what do you call it? Personas? I'm going to protect my daughter. That's all I can do. That's all that matters."

Nanako realized that she did not like that idea one little bit. If dad went inside the TV world, he'd have to face the shadows too, and he didn't have anyone like Icarus or Dawn to keep him safe. What was he going to do, just stand there and shout at the shadows to stop and listen to him, or to do what he told them before he had to send them to their rooms? Sometimes, shouting and looking scary worked on bad guys, too, Nanako knew. Bad guys in the real world, like robbers and stuff, sometimes just got scared of Dad, who could be pretty scary when he really wanted to. Then he could catch them, and turn them in. Sometimes, he had to use his gun, but even then he could probably catch them.

The TV world, though, wasn't like the real world. The bad guys in the TV world, and in the Velvet Room were much bigger, much scarier, and could do things that robbers and criminals out here couldn't do. Dad might be a good detective, she thought, but he wouldn't be able to use that stuff on the shadows. It just wouldn't work. He wasn't good enough to protect her from the shadows, no matter how much he wanted to.

It was the first time, really, that Nanako had ever thought of Dad as not being strong or powerful enough to protect her. All her life, she'd looked at him as someone who could never be beaten, someone who could always save her from everything. She'd felt safe with him, no matter what.

This new feeling, this new realization that it wasn't true anymore, was the worst thing Nanako could remember feeling. Unconsciously, she curled up a little closer to the couch.

**The next morning, at Junpei's house…**

Having used Rise's key to get in, Yosuke and most of the investigation team were now hanging out at Junpei's place, supposedly working on getting it set up and decorated for the big Christmas party that they were planning to have with their long-lost SEES friends. Yosuke looked around at the damage being done. Kanji, who was supposed to be hanging ceiling decorations, was instead now standing on a chair and staring at Naoto, who was in the process of helping Chie decorate the Christmas tree.

"She looks real pretty…with all those lights around her," he muttered, as Yosuke came over to reprimand him for slacking off. "Green ones, and blue ones…"

Before Yosuke could even open his mouth, Naoto turned around and raised a quizzical eyebrow at Kanji, who blushed a totally guileless bright red, and immediately went back to what he was doing.

"Don't forget the mistletoe!" announced Rise brightly, handing it up to Kanji.

Yosuke rolled his eyes. "Wait, seriously? Dude, you have been spending way too much time with Junpei…"

"Yes," added Yukiko, her eyes twinkling almost mischievously as she went through and washed some of the dishes that were still piled up in the sink. "That reminds me, Rise-chan…how come you already have a key to Junpei's house? I didn't realize the two of you were in such a serious relationship…"

Yosuke had half expected Rise to turn as red as Kanji currently was, but she didn't. Still as calm and collected as always, she tossed her hair, raised her chin slightly, and told them, "It's nothing like that. We're just a pair of mature adults having a little bit of fun, that's all."

"Adults?" asked Chie. "Hey, Rise-chan…aren't you the youngest one here?"

Rise didn't seem to have anything to say to that. "The mistletoe, Kanji, remember?" she said instead.

"Yeah, I'm on it," he mumbled.

"It occurs to me," murmured Naoto, "that 'adult' is more of a state of mind than any arbitrary classification determined solely by a person's age. To be an 'adult' is to be of a mature and rational way of thinking, as well as acting." After a moment's thoughtful pause, she added, more to herself than to anyone else, "Although, I suppose that by my very definition, the term 'adult' would not allow for any injection of what Rise refers to as 'fun.'"

The decorating party continued in companionable silence for a couple more moments, until Chie, ever the soul of self control and tact, asked the obvious question.

"So…Junpei's on vacation with Minako, right?" she began. "Is that…is that okay? I mean, don't you mind that he's spending time in a hotel with another girl?"

This time, Kanji didn't even pretend to still be hanging things. Now, all eyes and all focus was leveled on Rise, who was, as an idol, at least somewhat used to that kind of curious, intense attention.

"No," she said calmly. "No, Minako doesn't bother me. She and Junpei have been through a lot together. They're very good friends. Actually, sometimes I think he forgets that she isn't really his sister, like…oh, like Yu and Nanako-chan."

"Yes," agreed Yukiko, "but Minako-chan is a woman. She's not a little girl, like Nanako."

Rise looked slightly flustered, but Naoto, apparently annoyed by all the gossip, interjected. "I think you're absolutely correct," she informed Rise. "There is very little sexual or romantic interest apparent between Junpei and Minako. Rise has nothing whatsoever to be worried about, so I believe it would be best if we dropped the subject."

"Wait," asked Chie, "What do you mean, 'very little?' So there's at least a little bit, then, right?"

"Um, Naoto-kun…" murmured Yukiko, turning slightly pink. "You didn't have to put it like that…"

Yosuke sighed. He rarely felt sorry for Rise, but at this moment, she seemed to be getting a little more of this than she really deserved. After all, he knew that Minako and Junpei weren't a…well, a thing. They had never been a thing. It wasn't Minako that Rise should have been worried about.

Once, when Yosuke and Minako had been chatting together, she'd told him about this girl that Junpei had loved when they'd been back in high school. What had her name been? He couldn't remember. Midori, maybe? Or maybe it had been Chiriko. Anyway, Minako was worried that Junpei wasn't really over this girl, and that being with Rise wasn't going to solve the problem any faster. If there was anything that Rise should be concerned about with Junpei being back in Iwatodai for the week, that was probably it. He was not, of course, going to say any of that out loud. Nobody here needed any more fuel for their gossip, and he wasn't gonna be the guy who leaked Minako's secrets to everybody in the room.

Not like he'd done yesterday, anyway, when he'd somehow managed to let Dojima-san in on all of the TV world secrets with one single bad judgment call. What the hell had he been thinking? What were they going to do now, if Dojima-san tried to stop them from going back in there? What if he took their Wild Card away?

A little voice in the back of Yosuke's mind, the one that was always there, but that he tried so hard not to listen to, told him that maybe he'd wanted something like this all along. If Dojima put a stop to their forays into the Velvet Room, then Yosuke wouldn't have anything more to worry about it. It would all be out of his hands. Someone else would be making the calls, and he would just have to go along with them. That would be relaxing, refreshing, and potentially disastrous for both Yu and Minako.

At that moment, the door opened, and Teddie came in, still wearing what had become his mascot fur. "Heeey," he said, "Guess what everybody? Junes is having a sale on holiday cookies, so I got us a box! Who's hungry?"

As everyone dropped what they were doing to take a cookie break, Yosuke gave Teddie a suspicious look.

"Did you even pay for these?" he asked.

Teddie sparkled innocently up at him. "Mmph?" he asked, around a mouthful of cookie.


	12. Eleven - Christmas Eve

**Author's Note: **So, having finally aligned the two stories again (phew, that was a little more difficult than I thought), we are finally at Christmas eve. Just to let you know, there's a lot of overlap here, so here's a quick little guide to today's updates:

In this story, you'll see the events of the Christmas Eve party at Junpei's place. If you want to know what happens to Minako after she leaves the party, you'll want to go over and check out the most recent update of **Messiah.**

I've been looking forward to writing these chapters, and now I'm stuck in bed because of my foot, so there's nothing else in the world that I should be doing at this exact moment, other than working on this story.

What a treat for me!

**Eleven – Christmas Eve**

It was already pretty late in the evening, and everyone was starting to get restless.  
"Do you think they're okay?" asked Chie, sounding genuinely worried. "You don't think they got into an accident or anything, do you?"

"Well…that guy Junpei does drive pretty fast," muttered Yosuke, although he hoped that it was quiet enough that nobody could hear him. A little louder, he announced, "Nah, I'm sure they're fine. It's a long drive from Iwatodai. They probably just had to make a pit stop or something. Maybe more than one. How many cars are they taking, anyway?

Kanji yawned. "You know, it's getting past my bedtime," he remarked. "How much longer do you think it's gonna be?"

Rise gave him a disgusted look. "Your bedtime?" she asked. "What are you, Kanji, twelve? Anyway, it's Christmas eve! Nobody's going g to sleep tonight, so suck it up. Maybe you'd better have a cup of coffee…there's a coffee maker in the kitchen, I can go get you one."

Rise went off to get the coffee. "Hey, we've got a pretty nice set-up going on in here!" she called out. "I think even Shinjiro-san will be impressed by what we threw together."

"I…don't think that he's going to come," murmured Yukiko. "You know, after everything that happened this summer…"

Yosuke hadn't even thought about that. What if Shinjiro did come along? All they needed right now was just a little more drama. He sighed involuntarily. Please, he begged the universe at large, please, all he and everyone else needed was one night where nothing went disastrously or dramatically wrong.

Suddenly Yosuke could hear the sound of wheels on the pavement, and a car horn honked in the driveway.

"They made it," announced Yu, who was peering out the front window. "Looks like four cars."

Yosuke relaxed a little bit. "Okay, everybody," he called out. "Let's all get into place! This is the big one!"

Rise hurried back from the kitchen, and everyone else arranged themselves around the room, in places where they could see or be close to the doors.

"Wait!" announced Teddie. "Hold on, guys! Where's Nana-chan? Shouldn't she be here for this?"

Yosuke swallowed. "Um…we can talk about that later, okay? Just uh…just hold that thought for a little bit." Right now just didn't seem the right time to tell everyone had had happened the day before with Nanako and Dojima. Yosuke and Yu locked eyes for a moment, and Yu gave a single nod of approval. Okay, thought Yosuke, so Yu was on board. They'd tell everyone about what had happened later, when they had a chance to sit down and have a real, full-scale strategy meeting.

The door started to creak open, and even Yosuke tensed slightly as Junpei stuck his head into the room.  
"Hey," he said. "How come everything's so-!"

"Welcome back!" shouted the entire investigation team, standing up and hurrying forward to greet their old friends.

"Ken-kun!" exclaimed Naoto, reaching to pat him affectionately on the shoulder. "It is such a pleasure to see you again. Goodness…you do seem to have grown up a bit."

Ken beamed at Naoto, something that Yosuke didn't remember him making a regular habit of doing. Ken usually looked so serious, but right now, he looked almost like a normal kid. "I'm almost five feet tall, now," he informed Naoto. "Kanji-san, how are you? Oh dear, you look, um…"

The coffee that Rise had brought did not appear to be having a positive effect on Kanji. His eyes were slightly crossed. "Ugh, got a headache," he muttered. "S'okay, I'll be fine…nice to see you, Ken."

"Mitsuru-san!' Yukiko was warmly clasping the hands of the imposing-looking Kirijo family heir. "I've been wanting to talk to you. I've been thinking about what you told me in your last letter, about the way to a man's heart…"

Yosuke blinked in surprise. He hadn't realized that Mitsuru and Yukiko had even been corresponding. The way to a man's heart? What was that all about? Didn't everybody know that it was usually food?

"I'm glad to hear it," murmured Mitsuru. "I look forward to seeing if my advice does you any good. Of course, you'll have to let me know in your next letter how everything turns out. That is, of course, unless you'd like to try out that advice today…"

Yosuke hurried away from that conversation. Somehow, he didn't really want to know what was going on, or be a witness if something happened that he didn't need any part of.

"Oh, wow!" exclaimed Chie. "Who's this?" Yosuke looked over to see that Chie was now enthusiastically scratching behind the ears of a shiba inu dog, which was sitting back on its haunches and closing its eyes in apparent pleasure. It barked in response to her question.

"That's Koromaru," Akihiko informed her. "He's a persona-user, like us."

"No way," said Chie, shaking her head. "Are you joking? He's just a little guy."

"It's true!" insisted Yukari. "Koro-chan may be a dog, but he's just as strong and hard-working as any person I've ever met."

Rise, who had been chatting with Fuuka over near the kitchen door, now walked over and joined Chie in petting and pampering Koromaru. "Aww, he's so cute!" she squealed. "I bet you're super brave in battle, too, aren't you boy?"

Koromaru barked in affirmation. Next to the sofa, Teddie regarded Koromaru with evilly slitted eyes.

"I feel as though my position as mascot and resident cuteness in this group is being challenged," he muttered coldly. Yosuke almost felt bad for him. After all, none of the girls were paying him any attention. Then again, how was that any different from the way things usually worked? It's not as though anyone was as interested in Teddie as he always seemed to think they were, and maybe it was a good thing for him to get a wake-up call, to make him realize that his creepy way of hitting on every girl in the room honestly wasn't so cute.

Then, that robot girl was in the doorway, and all the chatter in the house came to a dead stop.

What, wondered Yosuke, was she doing here? How could Minako have even let her in here, after everything that had happened when they' first had to reseal that Nyx thing? Unconsciously, his hand went to his pocket, where he kept his persona card. Around the room, he could see several other people having the same reaction, reaching towards concealed weapons or into sleeves, socks, and pockets for their personas.

"Um…hello, everyone," murmured the robot. "I…I hope that this Christmas Eve finds all of you well…"

"What the hell-?" began Kanji.

It was Yu who interrupted him. Wheeling himself across the room, he stretched out a hand in greeting to the robot. "It's Aigis, isn't it?" he asked her. "I don't think we've actually been introduced. I'm Yu. Welcome to Inaba."

"Narukami-san," murmured Aigis. To Yosuke's intense surprise, she bowed to him in a gesture of deep respect. "Thank you. I am…honored to be invited to this party. I hope that we can put behind us the things that have become part of the past."

Slowly, almost hesitantly, conversations began to begin again. People were drawing their eyes away from Aigis and back towards each other, or to the kitchen table which was laden with various Christmas goodies. Yu rolled over to the door to meet Minako and Junpei as they finally came in from the car, and Yosuke, shaking himself and trying to let his anger subside, hurried over to join them.

"Hey," he asked Minako. "How was your trip? We kinda missed you around here."

"Yeah," agreed Yu, with a little twinkle of amusement in his eye. "You should have seen the way uncle Dojima looked when he came home from work the first day that you were gone. You might get a little more respect around the office from now on."

"Respect? From him?" Minako laughed. "That's…not likely, although it's nice to hear that he missed me, I think."

The mention of Dojima's name sent another little twinge of guilt stabbing through Yosuke's chest. Maybe he could at least tell Minako about what happened right now. After all, she was sort of the leader of the SEES guys, wasn't she? She'd probably have to know before everyone else. Plus, it would be really nice to get this off of his chest.

"Can I talk to you for a second?" he asked her. "Um, sorry, it really won't take that long…"

He, Yu, and Minako settled themselves down in a corner of the room, away from the greetings and enthusiasm of the rest of the two teams. Junpei, abandoned by his friends, shrugged, sighed, and was then immediately accosted by an enthusiastic Rise, who threw herself into his arms and planted a big, bold kiss on his cheek.

"W-whoa, hey!" he stammered, wrapping his arms around her to give her a quick little hug. "I guess you missed me, huh?"

Yosuke noticed that Minako had turned her head in the direction of Junpei's voice, and was smiling and nodding to herself as she listened to him and Rise talking. She really did care about that guy, he thought to himself. Idly, he wished that he had a friend or two from back in the day, or from the place where he used to live. It would be nice to have someone who knew him as well as Junpei and Minako knew each other. Before he'd moved to Iwatodai, there really hadn't been anybody like that in his life. He'd said he didn't care about it, but…the more he watched his friends interact with each other, the more he wondered if, once upon a time, he'd been missing out.

Yu caught his eye, and gave him a quizzical look. "What's wrong?" he asked. "You look worried."

Instantly, Yosuke told himself to snap out of it. What had happened before didn't matter. He had the best friends in the world, now, and that was why he'd made sure that Junpei brought all the older persona users back here in the first place. Together, they were going to find a way to protect his friends, so that he never had to feel again what it might be like to be quite that lonely. That, he knew, was a really selfish way of looking at it, but as long as nobody could see inside his head, there was nothing for him to feel too bad about.

"Listen," he told Minako. "You're not going to like this, but just…just don't say anything until I finish talking, okay?"

Minako frowned. "I already don't like it," she told him. "Okay, I'll be quiet. What's up?"

Careful to leave out the fact that it had really been his fault in the first place, Yosuke told Minako all about Dojima's discovery of the TV world, and the reaction that he'd had to that discovery. Minako listened patiently throughout the entire thing, occasionally nodding to herself.

"So, that's what happened," finished Yosuke, a bit anticlimactically. "I thought you should know about it, at least before you see him again at work."

"Do the others know yet?" asked Minako.

Yosuke shook his head. "We…figured it would spoil the party."

Minako looked thoughtful for a moment, and a bit distracted, biting her lip and turning her head from side to side for a moment. Finally, she said, "Nanako isn't here." Yosuke gave her a surprised look, and she sighed, and said, "I can't hear her. When Nanako's in a room, you can usually tell. She's very…effusive, and she'd probably love Kormaru."

"Yeah," agreed Yosuke. "It sucks, but-!"

"She's probably disappointed at not having been invited," continued Minako. "I'm sure she knows why, but I bet she's very lonely right now, alone at home with a father who is probably not being terribly understanding of what she's going through. I know Dojima-san. So does Yu. He's probably being very distant, very distracted…and it's Christmas Eve. I think we should call her and invite her over."

"Uncle Dojima isn't going to let her go out alone," observed Yu.

Minako shrugged. "Then invite him too," she suggested. "We don't have anything to hide from him, anymore. It's probably better this way, in any case."

Yu readily agreed, and so Yosuke pulled out his cell phone and went to find a quiet place that he could use to make a phone call. As he walked through the room, he noticed that Kanji and Ken were sharing a very large plate of cookies, and that Akihiko was squaring up to let Chie punch him in the chest, which Yosuke could only assume was some kind of demonstration of how manly and buff he'd become since they last met. What, he wondered, would Mitsuru think of that? He looked around, but realized that he couldn't find her. Come to think of it, he had no idea what had happened to Yukiko, either. That probably wasn't a good sign. Shaking his head, he dialed the Dojima number, and took a deep breath while waiting for Nanako to pick up.

"Hello," she said finally, sounding tired and a little sad. "Dojima residence."

"Hey, Nanako!" Yosuke did his best to sound upbeat. Just listening to that note in her voice made him feel terrible that he hadn't done this much sooner. "Where are you? We thought you were going to come over and join us at Junpei's house for Christmas!"

"But…" Nanako sounded like she was trying very hard not to hope that this was good news. "Dad told me I'm not allowed to go out by myself anymore, and Big Bro said that I should do what Dad tells me to make sure he doesn't worry so much, at least for a little while…"

"So," said Yosuke, "why don't you bring your dad over here with you? There's plenty of extra food, and even he probably doesn't want to spend Christmas all by himself."

Nanako was so delighted that she dropped the phone, and Yosuke had to wait while she fumbled around for it on the ground. Eventually, they agreed that she'd do her best to get Dojima to bring her over as soon as possible, and Yosuke hung up.

As he turned back to the group, he saw Minako standing over by the Christmas tree, hanging a little multicolored paper star from one of the lower branches.

"What's that?" he asked. "Did you make it?"

Minako gave him a strange, bitter little smile. "It's the wrapper from the cupcake that Shinji made for me last Christmas," she told him. "I didn't want to lose it, so I cut it into a star and kept it on my dresser. I thought it might look nice on our tree."

That's right, thought Yosuke. In the end, Shinjiro had never shown up to the party. Yosuke didn't know the whole story behind what had happened during the breakup, but he knew that it had been ugly, messy, and that the girls had strictly forbidden him from ever asking Minako about it. It would, they assured him seriously, be much too painful.

Still, he couldn't himself. She just looked so…well, different. Not like her usual happy, upbeat self. "Hey," he said, "you know, if you ever want to talk about it, I'm here to listen." Those words sounded so familiar in his head that he had to stop and think for a moment. Where and when had he said that before?

Minako reached out and gave his hand a little squeeze. "Thank you," she said, like she meant it. "You know, I might take you up on that someday."

Yosuke opened his mouth to say something else, but at that moment the door opened with a bang, and Nanako ran inside, shouting, "Hi everybody! I'm sorry we're so late! Look, I brought cookies!" She was holding a plate of what looked like homemade Christmas cookies, all bundled up in crinkly saran-wrap and tied with a red and green bow.

"More cookies?" asked Junpei, his eyes going wide. "Aw, man, we have, like…plates and plates of them."

"Don't worry," said Chie, laughing. "I promise, they'll get eaten. Come on in, Nanako-chan! Let's put those down in the kitchen."

As Chie and Nanako hurried past, Dojima strode inside and looked somewhat suspiciously around at the group. Yosuke swallowed. At the same moment, Yu and Minako both came forward to greet the detective.

"I'm glad you could make it, uncle," said Yu, perhaps a little more formally than he normally would. "Are you hungry?"

"Got any booze?" muttered Dojima.

Minako laughed. "No," she said. "There are underage kids at this party, remember?" Yosuke was impressed by the sparkle in her voice. All of her previous sadness seemed to have been forgotten.

He never could seem to keep himself together when it came to detective Dojima. The guy was just so…imposing. Then again, Minako had dated one of the most legitimately scary guys that Yosuke had ever met. Maybe this was just second nature to her, now.

"Excuse me a moment," she told them, heading for the door. "I'm going to step out for a little fresh air. I won't be gone long. Save some cookies for when I get back, okay?"

As she left the house, Yosuke noticed that Junpei waited a few moments, and then followed her, closing the door behind him as quietly as he could as he went.

Uh oh, thought Yosuke. What if, he wondered, there really was something going on between those two? That would be awful for poor Rise.

"Hey Yosuke!" called Chie. "What are you doing? Come on, the party's over here!"

Pushing the unworthy thoughts about Junpei and Minako out of his mind, Yosuke hurried over to join his friends.


	13. Twelve - Christmas Day

**Author's Note: **I am just so excited for some of the things I have in store for you guys in my two current stories…last night, on the way back from rehearsal, I did some re-plotting of a few of the later chapters, and…I can't wait to show you the fun stuff! First, though, we have to sort out some important plot.

Oh, by the way, I'll be out of town tomorrow for the Passover holiday, so there won't be an update. You'll have one on Wednesday night, though. Happy Pesach, to anyone who is celebrating it!

As we move farther along in this story, I strongly encourage you to remember the things that Yu suggested about the real reasons for his and Minako's seemingly random injuries. If you need a refresher on just exactly what that theory was, he shares with Minako in chapter nineteen of **Messiah**.

**Twelve – Christmas Day**

A few hours into the party, when Christmas had finally come, Yosuke walked out of the kitchen to see Dojima standing against the wall and just staring dead ahead at Aigis. Aigis, who was who was saying something emphatically to Junpei and Rise, didn't seem to have noticed, although Yosuke thought that anyone, even someone who wasn't entirely human, would have been able to feel a stare as intense as Dojima's on his or her back.

"Um…sir?" he asked. "Is…something wrong?"

Dojima glanced over at him. "What is that thing?" he asked, pointing at Aigis. "Another mascot? It looks like some kind of robot…"

Yes, thought Yosuke. It didn't seem as though Aigis had taken any particular care to hide the fact that she wasn't just like everybody else. If you didn't' look too closely at her, you could get away with not noticing, but Detective Ryotaro Dojima probably looked pretty closely at just about everything.

Yosuke gave up. After all, robots were the last thing that he or Dojima really had to worry about right now. "Yeah," he agreed, "she's…pretty much. Although, I think, technically, she might an android." As far as he could remember, Minako had said that there was a difference. Not that he cared.

He was prepared for more questions. Honestly, he had to admit to himself that if Dojima had asked him about Aigis, he would have relished the opportunity to tell all about how Aigis had tortured Yu. Dojima, at least, would probably be willing to hate her just as much as Yosuke did. He seemed like the kind of guy to hold a grudge, and right now, Yosuke really needed someone who was good at grudges.

Unfortunately, Dojima didn't seem to be in the mood. "…right," was all he said. "Yeah. An android. Sure." He nodded slowly to himself, then opened his mouth, closed it, and reached a hand into his pants pocket. "I need a smoke," he mumbled. "I'm just gonna-!"

Suddenly, Minako was somehow, at Dojima's elbow. Minako breezed past him, plucking the pack of cigarettes out of his hand as she went. "Nope," she said over her shoulder, as she moved off into the throng of her friends. "Dojima-san, we had a deal."

"I don't get how she does that," murmured Yosuke sympathetically. "She shouldn't be able to do that. How did she even know where you-?"

Dojima just shook his head and sighed. "That's not the first time that's happened," he admitted.

"Where's Nanako-chan?" asked Yosuke.

"She fell asleep hours ago," said Dojima. "Iori told me I could put her to sleep on the bed upstairs.

Yosuke frowned. "Didn't you want to go home?"

Shaking his head, Dojima told him, "Yu says there's going to be a meeting tonight. If you're all going to be talking about this…'TV world' stuff, then I'm going to hear it.'"

Of course, thought Yosuke, with a little inward sigh. "Okay," he said. "Well, it's…probably time for us to do that, then. I'll go get everybody together."

It took him a few minutes to find everybody. Yukiko and Mitsuru were finally back, although Yosuke still had no idea where or why they'd gone in the first place. He had a sneaking, sinking suspicion that he'd find out soon enough. Ken was helping Kanji repair some of the damage that had been done to the tree decorations when Teddie had challenged Koromaru to a duel of cuteness, and Koromaru had responded by bowling him over backwards into the tree, licking his face and barking enthusiastically. The winner had been pretty clear, although at least Minako and Yu had found the good graces to help Teddie back up again. He was now sulking, and talking to Fuuka, who was patting his fur consolingly. She seemed to have a very calming effect on people. Yosuke wondered if they could keep her. Having someone around who was good at forcing Teddie to chill out would be a huge asset…

Akihiko and Naoto seemed to be heatedly debating something over by the windowsill. As Yosuke got closer, he could see that they'd laid out Naoto's gun and one of Akihiko's gloves side by side, and were gesturing to them emphatically as they spoke.

"….just as much of a kick as any firearm," Akihiko was insisting. "I can hit just as fast, and with just as much force."

Naoto shook her head. "That is a physical impossibility, Akihiko-san," she informed him. "The very nature of the firearm is such that…"

Yosuke abandoned them to their discussion.

Once he'd managed to round everyone up, they all ranged themselves around the couch. Some people sat in chairs, some on the ground, and some on the sofa itself. As though his presence wasn't imposing enough already, Dojima insisted on standing just behind the couch, where he could effectively loom over everyone and glare at them from on high.

"Okay," muttered Yosuke, doing his best to ignore the detective. "So, everybody knows why we're here, right?"

"Merry Christmas to you too," sneered Junpei.

"Shut up," Yosuke told him. "Seriously, though. We're all clear on what's been happening?"

"It might be beneficial," murmured Aigis from the floor, "if you were to inform those of us who have traveled from Iwatodai of any new information acquired since the re-sealing of Nyx. I, for one, am uncertain as to my grasp of the present situation, although I have been informed of sporadic facts over the course of this festive evening."

Right, thought Yosuke. That made sense.

He spent at least the next half an hour explaining, as best he could, everything that they'd learned about the Velvet Room, the shadows, and the worlds inside the minds of their friends, occasionally doubling back to cover any details that he might have missed. After a while, Minako and Yu got up to help him, and together the three of them put together an effective picture of the story so far.

The one thing that all three of them were careful not to mention was Adachi's involvement. It was like an unspoken agreement that nothing about Adachi was relevant to anything they were talking about at the moment. Nobody even tried to bring him up. Yosuke assumed that Minako and Yu, like him, were hoping to keep Dojima as far away from that clusterfuck as they possibly could, although the two of them did exchange an inaudible whisper when Yosuke mentioned the demise of the three Velvet Room assistants.

He also, per his agreement with Junpei, didn't say anything about Thanatos while Minako was around. There'd be plenty of time to talk about that later.

"So," he finished, "um, that's why we asked you guys to come and help us out. This can't go on forever. We need to find a solution to the Velvet Room problem, before Yu and Minako get seriously hurt. You're the more experienced persona users, so we were hoping that you might know something that we don't."

The slightly alarmed looks on the faces of most of his SEES listeners warned Yosuke ahead of time that they probably didn't. He tried not to let his heart sink. Okay, well, he should have been expecting that. Still, multiple heads were better than one, right?

"What exactly did Igor say about sealing up Minako's mind?" asked Akihiko.

"Um…" Yosuke frowned. "That we could do it the same way that we'd sealed Nyx."

"Oh," added Yukari, "but he didn't say that you have to do it that way, right?" She glanced around at the other investigation team members for approval. "Right?"

Yukiko spoke up hesitantly. "Excuse me, Yosuke, but…that's not exactly what Igor said. Not really. What he actually said was that the doors to Minako's and Yu's minds could be sealed from the inside. He did mention the Great Seal, but…he never told us that we'd have to perform it again."

"A riddle," murmured Aigis thoughtfully.

"Ugh, that's just like him," lamented Yukari. "So, it has to happen 'from the inside?' Someone has to go in there and seal it, and then find a way back out again?"

"Nah, can't be," insisted Junpei. "Cause if it's sealed good, nobody should be able to get in or out."

"We should go and look at the doors again," Fuuka suggested. "Perhaps that would give us a better idea. It could be some kind of trick…"

Fair enough, thought Yosuke. "Then, in that case," he said, "why don't we plan on heading over to the Velvet Room in the morning?"

"The morning?" asked Rise, yawning. "Yosuke, it's already four AM…"

"Okay," said Yosuke patiently, "then let's get a few hours of sleep, and then we'll go to the Velvet Room. It's Christmas, so pretty much nobody's working, right? I've got a key to Junes, so it shouldn't be hard for us to get in without being noticed. Afterwards, we can all come back here and have another meeting to see if we've come up with any new ideas."

Everyone seemed to agree with this plan. There was a general murmur of assent rippling around the room. Even Dojima, apparently without realizing it, was nodding along with the tide of opinion.

Thinking about Dojima reminded Yosuke of something. While the others chattered, he leaned over to Yu and Minako. "Look," he said, "I know that we can't let Dojima-san into the TV, and I'm not planning to, but…based on what happened last time, we can't be too careful, you know? We're gonna need to get Adachi out of there, just in case."

Yu looked at Minako. "We can ask Nanako to let him out," he told her.

Minako shrugged. "I'll take care of it," she said.

**Several hours later, outside the electronics department….**

Dojima was very tense. He hadn't gotten any sleep. That wasn't unusual; except that this time, he hadn't gotten any sleep, but hadn't gotten any work done while staying awake, either. It might have been the lack of productivity that was really wearing down on him. Wasted time wasn't something that he could really afford, especially in light of recent events.

The trouble was, he still couldn't figure out exactly what action he was supposed to take, when it came to the TV world crap. He wanted to do something useful, but there didn'' seem to be anything useful to do.

At the moment, he was just sitting in a plastic food court chair outside the big TV in the Junes electronics department. Everyone else had gone into the TV, and he'd had to watch each of them get sucked in like they were going through some watery vortex, which was disturbing and nonsensical in so many ways.

Well, all right, he admitted. That wasn't entirely fair. Not everyone had left him. For a few minutes, Yu and Minako had stuck around to keep him company. It hadn't been long, though, before the other two had exchanged some very conspiratorial whispers, whispers that were absolutely the precursor to some sort of organized crime. Then Minako had left, on her own, and now Dojima and Yu were here together, just sitting, watching, and waiting.

"This is terrible," Dojima muttered. "You can't even hear what's going on in there. How are we supposed to know if they need help?"

Yu said nothing for a moment.

"Well?" asked Dojima.

Glancing up at him, Yu frowned. "Uncle Dojima," he remarked quietly, "I'm sorry, but you don't get any sympathy from me on this one. This is your first time watching from the sidelines. I've been doing this for almost a year."

That shut Dojima up. Okay, he realized, that was a very good point. Yu didn't have any more say in this than he did. Actually, Yu was really a victim here. Whatever was going on, it had cost him his ability to walk.

"There used to be something that I could do about it," continued Yu. Dojima got the sense that he was really talking to himself. "I used to be able to help. Now I just sit here…and when everybody comes back out, I have to smile about it and act like it doesn't bother me. Otherwise they'll worry. So, with all due respect, I'd really appreciate it if you could not make this worse."

Two different sides of Dojima began to war against each other for control of his mind. The "super detective" side of him was eventually beaten and quashed by the "good old uncle" side.

"Hang in there, kid," he told Yu, clapping him on the shoulder in a show of fatherly encouragement. "They went in there to figure out how to fix you, right? They're smart people, and they're your best friends. They seem pretty determined not to let you down…so cheer up. They'll think of something."


	14. Thirteen - Christmas Day

**Author's Note: **Oh hooray, things are finally started to get rolling with this plot! I'm excited. I actually have another update for you today, but I have to get some work done first, so stay tuned!

I can see that a lot of you are reading this story, which is so delightful and gratifying! Thank you so much! I would love, it though, if those of you who haven't reviewed yet would take a moment to review the story, just to let me know what you like, and what you don't like. It's always a big help to me, to hear things like that! I know we're all busy, no pressure, but I'd appreciate it!

**Thirteen – Christmas Day**

"So…what exactly are we looking for?" asked Yukari, as she, Junpei, and Akihiko stood inside the door to Minako's mind, staring around helplessly at the walls.

"I, uh…I dunno," muttered Junpei. "Something that'll make sense, I guess? You know something that'll help us 'seal the mind from the inside,' or whatever it was that Igor said. Right, Yosuke?"

Yosuke, who was on the other side of the room, inside the door to Yu's mind, shrugged. "That's the plan, yeah." When they'd first come into the Velvet Room, he'd directed the members of SEES to go and check out Minako's mind, while the investigation team handled Yu's mind. Neither investigation had revealed any worthwhile information so far, though. The "rooms" inside the minds were, thankfully, as sound as ever, but they were also completely devoid of any clues as to how to permanently close them. Nobody was any farther along now than they had been an hour ago, and Yosuke had already heard some rebellious murmurs from Akihiko about this being a waste of everyone's time.

"Any luck, guys?" asked Rise, as she and Fuuka walked over to join Yosuke and the others. "We asked Igor if he had any more to tell us, but he wasn't very helpful… not that I was expecting much from that guy." She looked annoyed. "Everything's always a riddle with him. I bet him and Adachi get along great. They probably sit here all day coming up with new ways to mess around with people's heads."

"Rise-chan!" said Yosuke. "Man, am I glad you're here. You're just the person I need right now. Hey, can you get Kouzeon to scan the inside of this room? If we can't figure anything out, maybe your persona can…after all, it's never let us down before, right?"

"Uh, except for the time when we tried to beat that snake shadow thing," Kanji reminded him. "Wasn't a lot of help then…"

Rise gave him the kind of dagger-laden stare that only a practiced performer really could give. Kanji, totally oblivious, went back to poking at the walls. Apparently unable to take her frustration out on Kanji, Rise rolled her eyes at Naoto, who blinked, nodded sympathetically, and then returned to her task.

"I'll help too," murmured Fuuka. Crossing the room, she headed over to stand next to Yukari, who had to step back as Fuuka summoned her persona. Everyone stood around respectfully and watched as Juno and Kouzeon did a careful check of the surrounding areas.

The scan seemed to take an awfully long time. Yosuke tried not to get too impatient. He wasn't the only one.

"So?" asked Junpei. "What's the deal?"

Fuuka and Rise looked across at each other, and then shook their heads. Both personas vanished back into the users from which they'd' come.

"Ugh," grumbled Rise. "Nothing. There's nothing here. This is a dead end…Kouzeon can't sense anything. Are you sure we're remembering it right? What Igor said, I mean? Wasn't there anything else?"

Yosuke sighed. Oh well, he thought. It hadn't been a bad idea to have them check, at least. He was just opening his mouth to say something, although he wasn't yet quite sure what, when Fuuka spoke up.

"Um, I found this," she said, and there was an urgency in her voice that hadn't been there before. "It…probably isn't quite what you were looking for, though."

Yosuke followed her pointing finger to see a shadow starting to materialize inside of Minako's mind. It was actually pretty small, and compared to some of the things they'd found in there, didn't look all that terrifying, but Yosuke knew better than to leave it alone in there for longer than he absolutely had to. The shadow was taking the form of some kind shelled-creature, maybe a snail, or a…Yosuke couldn't be sure. Anyway, it had a shell. That probably meant it was going to slightly harder to hit.

"Takehaya Susano-o," he called, and his persona came forth and hovered in front of him, waiting for commands. Around him, several of the investigation team members reached for their persona cards, then stopped, frowned, and looked at each other, apparently uncertain as to exactly who should prepare for battle, and who should take a backseat this time.

The SEES members, on the other hand, didn't seem to have any such problem. In a couple of swift movements, Fuuka had again summoned Juno, and Mitsuru, Junpei, Akihiko, and Yukari had stepped forward, while the rest of the group moved carefully and silently back against the walls to give them all the fighting space they required.

"Damn," muttered Yosuke. They were very good. He wondered idly if a few years more of experience would help his team be able to work together just that well. In the meantime, he'd have to make a party decision. Let's see, he thought. Nanako had fire personas, and could also heal. Kanji could use lightning, which left him to use wind, and Chie to use ice. Both Chie and Kanji could do some pretty intense physical attacks, too, and that wasn't a bad starting lineup for a little shadow like this.

"Nanako, Chie, and Kanji," he said, trying to sound as confident and leaderly as possible. "With me. The rest of you get back."

As the group shuffled dutifully around to obey him, Yosuke felt a little surge of pride. He hadn't done too badly that time. Even Mitsuru was looking at him with less than her usual disdain. That was progress, right?

"Kanji," he began again, "try a-!"

"Ziodyne," said Akihiko, and a bolt of lightning struck the shell, before apparently bouncing off. "No good," he growled. "Either lightning doesn't work, or we need to get it to open up so that we can hit the inside of the shell…"

"Bufudyne," commanded Mitsuru. Again, the attack struck, but refused to do any damage.

"Hey," said Yosuke. He had an idea. They needed to get it to open its shell, didn't they? He could think of one trick that tended to throw shadows off balance, or expose them to attacks. "Yukari-san," he called. "Um, can we try something? At the same time, ready? One, two, three-!"

At the same moment, Yosuke and Yukari performed a Garudyne attack. The shadow was swept up in a gust of wind, and blow over, revealing it's more vulnerable underbelly.

"Cool," said Kanjii. "Nice one, leader!"

Yosuke tried not to glow with pride.

It didn't take too long to defeat the thing, once they'd figured out how to get at its underside. A few heavy blows from Kanji and Junpei weakened it, and then Nanako finished it off with a burst of flame from Icarus.

Mitsuru, watching the shadow's demise with some apparent interested, asked, "As I understand it, the appearance of a shadow inside Arisato's mind means that she is experiencing a moment of strong emotion."

"Yeah that's pretty much what it looks like," agreed Yosuke.

"Hmm," murmured Mitsuru.

Yosuke wasn't quite sure what that meant, but for some reason, Nanako was turning pink and looking very uncomfortable. He was just about to ask her what the problem was, when Ken, who hadn't said a word throughout the entire investigation so far, left Minako's mind behind, and went over to talk to Nanako.

"You're pretty good," he said, with a tone of respect that Yosuke knew from experience was hard to evoke from fourteen year old boys.

Nanako immediately perked up. "Thanks!" she said, beaming. "I come on lots of patrols with the others, so I get lots of practice! Someday I'm gonna be as good as Chie, or Big Bro was!"

"Big Bro?" asked Ken. "You have a brother?"

"Um, he's actually my cousin," clarified Nanako. "This is his place!" She gestured at the walls of the room inside Yu's mind.

Ken just nodded. "Oh, I see," he said. "So I guess when he stopped being able to use his powers, you took over for him. Right?"

That seemed a little harder for Nanako to stomach. She frowned thoughtfully, and then eventually nodded back. "Yeah…" she agreed. "Yeah, I think so. I'm keeping him safe. That's what families do for each other!"

For the first time that Yosuke could clearly remember, Ken smiled. "That's right," he told her.

**Meanwhile, in the Junes food court…**

"It's been a really long time," growled Dojima, staring at the little clock in the corner of one of the sample TVs. More than an hour. Isn't there anything you can do?"

Dojima knew as soon as he saw the look on Yu's face that he probably should have phrased that differently.

"No," murmured Yu. "I'm afraid not."

Dojima sighed. "Look," he insisted, "Understand where I'm coming from. A couple of days ago, the world made sense. There were good guys, and there were bad guys. I had a job to do, and I was good at it. All the pieces were in place. Now, there's this…" He scowled. "I can't keep the pieces in place. Sense doesn't make sense anymore. "

Actually, he realized, that feeling had begun long before he'd finally realized the truth about the TV world. "It was you," he mumbled.

"What was me?" asked Yu.

"You were the one that shook everything up," he clarified. "Before, it was just Nanako and me. It was hard, but…we knew what we were doing. We had a routine, we had a system. Things would go the way they always went. Then you came along, and suddenly, we were a family, and everything was different, everything was more…delicate." Dojima was doing his best to put a lot of feelings into words, not something he was or wanted to be particularly good at. Feelings were supposed to be something that you kept inside, something that you didn't burden or bother other people with. They tended to get in the way of things and to make them more complicated, anyway.

"Uncle Dojima," began Yu.

Dojima shook his head in frustration. "You give us something like that," he muttered, "and now you're telling me that you might take it away again?"

"I'm not taking anything away," insisted Yu. "I would never-!"

"You died," said Dojima. He was surprised to hear how much accusation there was in his voice when he said that. "Nanako died…and then somehow, she came back. It was like a dream. Then, you died…and you came back, too. What about next time? When am I gonna wake up, huh? What if suddenly, the real world is the real world again, where people stay dead? Am I gonna sit there, waiting for you to come back, and then you just...don't? Nothing makes sense about any of this. I can't even prepare for what it would feel like to lose both of my kids…again. Maybe or maybe not for the last time."

Yu was quiet for a moment. "Both of your kids," he said.

Dojima shrugged. "Answer my question."

Yu took a deep breath. "It won't happen again," he insisted. "Nanako's not going to die. I'm not going to die. You said it yourself, my friends are in there doing their best to protect both of us. You won't have to lose your family anymore."

"I want your word on that," mumbled Dojima.

"You can have it," said Yu. "You have my word that I won't let anything break up your family-!"

"Our family," insisted Dojima, although he wasn't quite sure why.

"Our family," agreed Yu. "You have my word that I won't let anything break up our family, no matter what happens. So you can-!"

Suddenly, Yu stopped speaking, and breathed in sharply. His eyes rolled slightly back in his head, and he froze for a moment. Dojima stared at him. "What's going on?" he demanded. "Hey. Hey! Are you sick? Are you okay?"

A moment passed before Yu, blinked, exhaled, and relaxed slightly. He glanced over at Dojima, looking dazed. "Did you…hear something?" he asked.

Dojima shook his head. "No. Don't tell me you're hearing voices, now…jeez, this just gets worse and worse."

Quickly, Yu shook his head. "No," he insisted. "Not hearing voices. More like…feeling voices."

"Yeah," sighed Dojima. "Exactly. More crap that makes no sense."

Apparently ignoring him, Yu rolled his chair forward, until he was right in front of the giant TV set. He reached out with one finger, and hesitantly touched the screen. Dojima half expected sparks to fly out of his hand, or something else unexpected, but nothing happened. Yu's finger just bumped up against the screen and made a little "plink" noise.

"I thought you said that you couldn't get in," Dojima reminded him.

Yu nodded. "I can't," he agreed. "But…" Suddenly, he turned around. "I want to try something," he told Dojima. "I have to go to the shopping district. There's…someone there that I want to see. Will you come with me?"

Dojima snorted. "What, afraid to leave me here on my own?" he asked. "Can't say I blame you. If I could only get in there, I'd…"

"Actually," murmured Yu, "I was hoping that you'd help push the chair. We'd get there faster if I had another pair of hands." Unexpectedly, Yu bowed slightly from the waist. "I could use your help," he reiterated.

Dojima frowned. On one hand, he was suspicious that this might be a ploy to get him away from the TV. On the other hand, the thing with the eye-rolling hadn't looked much like an act. Yu's face was even paler, like something was really going on here. Maybe if he didn't go along for the ride, he'd miss something important, something that might otherwise give him a clue as to how to access this whole TV world nightmare.

"Yeah, sure," he said, standing up. "Fine, but…we'd better be back before they get out of that place."

"I don't think that will be a problem, either way," said Yu cryptically.


	15. Fourteen - Christmas Day

**Author's Note: **…wait, seriously, what is up with my apostrophes? Apostrophes and commas seem to keep appearing in strange places in my documents. I know that they don't belong there…I do not intentionally put them there…and yet, they are there. Hmm. I am puzzled by this strange phenomenon.

Anyway, thank you for bearing with the typos. I'll try to figure out why I am doing that.

For those of you who are reading both stories, stuff is starting to match up again here. Actually, this part is a little tricky, so I have to decide whether to update **Messiah** or **Piecekeeping** next…it'll depend on how I want the reveal to play out, I suppose. I'll have to think about it. Well, let's tackle this update first…then I can worry about the next one. Or my ECE Policy homework. Or not.

**Fourteen: Christmas Day**

Nanako was doing her best not to stare at Ken.

Yu had told her about him once, when he'd been trying to explain all of the things that had been happening in the Velvet Room. Ken had used a persona to defeat that horrible Nyx thing when he was just ten years old! That was only two years older than Nanako! Actually, Nanako had once overheard Rise and Naoto talking about the fact that girls got mature a lot faster than boys did. If she looked at it that way, then she and Ken had been basically the same age when they'd started using a persona for the first time! She couldn't help it. She liked the idea. If Ken had really done all of those amazing things with his persona when he'd been her age, then she could probably do them too. She could definitely do them! Of course, he was fourteen now, and Nanako was aware that boys that age didn't really like to have girls following them around. Very, very carefully, she tiptoed after him as he walked from one side of Minako's mind to the other.

"Um, Amada-san," she murmured, as politely as she could. "Is it true that you can heal anything?"

Ken blinked at her. "Um…not anything," he replied.

"Because Minako says," continued Nanako eagerly, "that your persona can heal wounds, and even help people when they're so sick that they can't get up anymore! Minako says that you're the best healer!" Hesitantly, she glanced over her shoulder, then added, in an undertone, "Um…I don't think she wants anyone else to know that she said that, though, so…don't tell, okay?"

Ken smiled. Nanako even thought she almost saw him blush! "She said that about me?" he asked. "That's, um, very nice. I can heal some things, yes. Kala-Nemi does mostly light attacks, and pierce attacks, but…also healing."

Nanako frowned. "I can only do a little healing. Usually Yukiko or Teddie has to help," she said. "I can mostly just make stuff explode. Or catch fire," she added thoughtfully, "or, um, one time there was this big sort of red cloud of misty something, and then the shadow just…boom!" Gesturing emphatically with both hands, she tried to demonstrate what had become of the shadow.

Ken laughed. "No, that's good," he insisted. "Don't worry. You're a wild card, aren't you?"

"I think so," said Nanako. That was what Big Bro had told her, anyway, although she didn't really like that name. She didn't want to be a "wild" anything. "Wild" children were usually the badly behaved ones, and "wild" women were something else entirely.

"Then you'll learn," said Ken. "You told me that you want to protect your family, so you'll learn. Don't worry."

"Is that how you learned?" asked Nanako. "Because you wanted to protect someone?"

For some reason, Ken was very quiet after she said that. Nanako began to worry that she had said something inappropriate. "I'm sorry," she added hurriedly. "I'm not trying to be nosy. I just-!"

"It's okay," Ken assured her, shaking his head. "Yes, I think...maybe that's why. My mother and father died when I was very you-!" He stopped suddenly, looked at Nanako, and then apparently changed his mind. "When I was your age," he said instead. "So, I didn't want to lose anyone else. I mean, I don't want to. I want to protect all the people that I care about. Don't you want that, too?"

Nanako didn't know what to say to that. His mother and father had both died? That was too horrible to think about. Of course, she'd heard stories about people who had lost both of their parents. In fact, hadn't Minako's parents both died when she was a little girl, too? Still, it just seemed too terrible. True, Nanako's mother had died, but…Dad was still around. Dad would always be around, he'd told her that. Without Dad, things would be so lonely.

"I'm sorry," she murmured.

"It's okay," insisted Ken. "I met some great people because of what happened. I wouldn't have met them if my life had been different, so I have a lot to be happy about."

Nanako decided that she'd been wrong about Ken. Maybe some boys matured slower than girls, but Ken was about as adult as anyone she'd ever met.

Before she'd had a chance to figure out how to respond, though, something very strange happened. She thought, for a moment, that she heard Dad's voice sounding through the Velvet Room door just behind her.

"Uh oh," she said.

Ken stared at her. "What's wrong?" he asked. She watched as his hand went instinctively to the little gun that he kept in his pocket. Minako had once called it an "evoker." Nanako knew that Junpei used one too…but she definitely liked her persona card a lot better.

"Um," she said. "I think I hear my-!"

All of a sudden, Dad's voice was much louder. "Where's Nanako?" he was bellowing, probably at Igor. Instinctively, Nanako winced. "She's supposed to be in here. Where did she go? Where is everybody?"

"How the hell-?" began Yosuke, turning around to stare at the door that the voice was coming from. "There's no way he got in by himself. What was Yu doing, taking a nap? Aw, crap…"

The entire investigation team began to move towards the door, just as it burst open, revealing a furious and panicked-looking Dad, who went straight for Nanako. "There you are," he growled. "Jeez, you had me worried...hey, what is this place?" He gave the three assistant-shaped columns a dubious eye. "Gives me the creeps."

Then, several things happened at the same time. Yosuke and Chie opened their mouths and began asking Dad some very incoherent questions. The SSEES members starting muttering amongst themselves, apparently confused by Dad's entrance.

Nanako, however, wasn't paying attention to any of that. Instead, she was watching Yu wheel himself slowly in through the Velvet Room door.

"Big Bro!" she cried, running over and giving him a hug.

"Oh my god!" cried Chie. "Yu?"

"Whoa," said Kanji. "Wait, how did you-?"

"But…I thought you couldn't get into the Velvet Room," murmured Yukiko. "Without your persona, it should be impossible."

Yosuke walked over to them, and gave Yu a long look that Nanako couldn't read. "Is…is it over?" he asked. "I don't get it. Are you…"

Yu shook his head quickly. "No," he said. "No, nothing's changed. I still can't walk, there's still a part of my soul missing…it's all the same."

Yosuke looked slightly deflated. "Then how'd you get in?" he asked.

Yu seemed to have to think about that for a moment. "I don't know," he admitted finally. "Uncle Dojima and I were talking outside, and then, all of a sudden, I felt this voice in my head. It was the same feeling that you get when your persona awakens for the first time."

"But, I thought you said-!" interrupted Yosuke.

"I did," insisted Yu. "But…I figured, why not try? Look, I don't know what happened, exactly. But apparently now, I can enter the Velvet Room."

Yosuke grabbed on to Yu's chair. "We have to go see Igor," he was saying. "This could be big. Hey, maybe you're going to get better all by yourself! Maybe it's just a healing process thing." He kept talking, as he wheeled Yu out of the room and back into the Velvet Room. The rest of the investigation team followed, all talking and murmuring amongst themselves.

Nanako and Dad followed too, but when Yosuke and Yu stopped in front of Igor's chair, Dad kept walking.

"Dad, stop!" she called after him, but he wasn't listening. Instead, he pushed open the door, and headed out into the TV world, leaving Nanako unsure of what to do. On one hand, she wanted to stay with Yosuke and Yu, to find out what Igor would say about Yu's new ability to get into the Velvet Room. On the other hand, Dad was now walking around alone in the TV world. If she knew Dad, he was probably already looking for trouble.

"Go on," said Ken, unexpectedly appearing by Nanako's shoulder.

"But…" mumbled Nanako, biting her lip.

"It's okay," Ken assured her. "We're all here. Your Big Bro will be fine. Go and find your dad."

Nanako went.

She found him standing just a few steps outside the door, gazing around with wide eyes at the crazy studio-shaped landscape of the TV world.

"So," he mumbled to himself. "This is what all those calls were about, when that case began. The weird TV program that came on at midnight…I thought it was all some kind of a scam."

"Dad," hissed Nanako, pulling urgently at his arm. "We can't be here, it's not safe! Come back inside the Velvet Room, okay?"

Dad shook her off. "I can't believe I never realized it before," he was saying, although Nanako didn't think he was talking to her. "I had so many hints. So many people kept telling me about this place, but I was too pig-headed to figure it out. I might have saved lives."

"Dad!" Nanako insisted. "Come on, please?"

"Nanako," said Dad, turning suddenly on her, "I could have saved yours."

That made Nanako stop and stare at him. "Mine?" she squeaked. "But…I'm fine! I'm not dead."

"But you were," mumbled Dad under his breath. "You could have been. If only I'd listened to your cousin when I had the chance...none of this would have happened!"

Again, Nanako began tugging on Dad's arm. This wasn't, she knew, a good time for talking. She had to get him back into the Velvet Room, because Big Bro and Yosuke had said that if she didn't, he might-!

"Well," said a voice nearby, "Maybe it would have been easier if I wasn't the only person around here who was any good at my goddamn job. I mean, if they keep hiring those idiots to pretend to be policemen, we're never gonna be able to get anything done."

Nanako blinked. That had sounded like Dad's voice, only…meaner, somehow. It couldn't have been Dad, because she was looking right at him, and his mouth wasn't moving.

"Who the hell are you?" asked Dad. Nanako looked where he was looking, and her mouth fell open. Standing not too far from them both was …another Dad. At least, this person looked like Dad. He had the same clothes, the same hair, but…his voice was meaner, and his eyes were…were yellow. Yellow eyes, thought Nanako. Shadows had yellow eyes. Then, was this person the shadow that Yosuke and Big Bro had told her about? Was this…Dad's shadow?

"Oh no…" she moaned.

"Useless rookies, always messing up my work," continued the shadow Dad. "How does anyone expect me to solve cases when I'm too busy training the newbies? And then there's that girl…Arisato. Why the hell did I think it would be a good idea to hire a blind kid? Half the time, she's just in the way."

Nanako frowned. "That's not fair," she said. "Minako works really hard! She helps Dad solve lots of cases!"

"Of course she does," agreed Dad, resting a hand on Nanako's shoulder. "I'd be in trouble without her. Who the hell do you think you are, anyway? Where'd you get my clothes?"

The shadow Dad laughed, and it was Dad's laugh, only creepier. Nanako shuddered, and moved a little closer to the real Dad. "Nanako's figured it out," said the shadow. "She already knows, don't you, Nanako? I'm the real you. I'm all the things that you could be if only there weren't so many little responsibilities holding you back."

"That's crap," muttered Dad. "I don't know what you're trying to pull, but-!"

"Oh, and speaking of Nanako," continued the shadow, "Nobody ever seems to think about how hard it is to raise that girl all by myself. Here I am, trying to hold down a job, and raise a kid at the same time, with no help, and what thanks do I get? Just more and more work. The older she gets, the more trouble she is…and now that she's hanging out with all these older kids, she says all this miserable teenager stuff. What am I supposed to do? I'm no good at being a father…and I don't' understand girls. I'd rather be at work, anyway. It's easier to make sense of things, there. It's much easier than being at home."

Nanako felt as though she'd been struck. Easier being at work? Did dad really not like being at home with her? Was that really why he was always working such late hours? She looked up into the face of her real Dad, and saw that he was turning furious colors. "Daddy?" she whispered, using a name she hadn't called him since she was maybe two or three. "Is that…is that true?"

"No," he said quietly. "No, it's not true at all. I don't know what this is all about, Nanako, but you don't have to worry about stuff like that. I would never think of you that way."

"Oh, but I do think of you that way!" insisted the shadow. "I can't help it. It's the truth. Come on, you knew it all along, didn't you, Nanako? You knew the way I really felt. That's why you ran away from home, that time, when your Big Bro and I had to come searching for you. Because you know how much trouble it is for me just to have you around."

"Enough!" shouted Dad. "Leave her alone! Nanako's the best thing in my life. You have no idea what you're talking about. I've never thought of her that way! I've never thought any of these things, you're insane!"

Then, the shadow proved Dad's point. It let out an insane, terrifying burst of laughter that quickly got deeper and darker as the shadow Dad began to grow in size. Nanako hid her face against the real Dad's shirt, and then remembered that she couldn't do that. She had to be brave, she had to be willing to face this, even if Dad couldn't.

When she looked up again, the shadow Dad had turned into a giant, horrible policeman, with huge grasping arms and an ugly black hat pulled down over one yellow, glowing eye.

"Face it," growled the shadow. "I am you. For once in your life, face the truth!"

Then the shadow attacked.


	16. Fifteen - Christmas Day

**Author's Note: **Today, we update both stories with action-packed battle scenes! Hooray! Everybody faces their inner self, and we're doing it all before I've even had MY morning coffee!

I know that some of you will be disappointed by this. I am sorry about that, but trust me; there is a method to my madness. It's all part of the long-term plan.

By the way, if you're reading both stories, please read this chapter first, before you go over and check out the **Messiah** update! It'll make more sense that way around.

**Fifteen – Christmas Day**

"Interesting," murmured Igor, as Yu explained to him the events that had transpired just before he'd found himself suddenly able, again, to enter the Velvet Room.

"I heard this voice," he said, "inside me. It was the same voice, the voice that spoke to me when I awoke to my persona ability for the first time. It said…I am thou, and thou art I." He stopped, and went quiet.

"And?" asked Yosuke. "And then what?"

Yu shrugged. "And then nothing," he murmured. "That's all I heard. I thought that maybe, somehow, my personas had come back, but, when I looked for them…they still weren't there. I don't know what it was, really, but it wasn't my imagination. Something did change." He looked helplessly at Igor, and Yosuke figured that was a lost cause. Igor never said anything useful,. Everything he said just ended up being more and more confusing.

"It is possible," mused Igor, "that a part of your persona ability remains. As the wild card, you had a great and immeasurable power, a power to summon every side of yourself, from the weakest, to the strongest. When you gave up your soul, perhaps some of what you retained was still imbued with that power. Perhaps something then, is left to you, after all…intriguing." He looked down his nose at Yu as though Yu was some sort of newly discovered species of stick insect.

"So, if that's true," interjected Yosuke, "then where are the personas? You say he's still got power, right? So, how come he can't use it?"

Igor shrugged. "It is unclear," he admitted. Yosuke blinked. Wait, had Igor juts confessed that there was something he really didn't know? "The power of the persona molds itself to the individual user," Igor continued. "Only the user himself can determine how to re-awaken any latent power that may not have been sacrificed to the Seal."

Yosuke thought that made as much sense as everything else, but for some reason, Yu just nodded. "I knew it," he muttered. "I knew that was it."

"Knew what?" asked Yosuke. "Wait, you knew this was going to happen?"

"No," insisted Yu, shaking his head in an uncharacteristic display of impatience. "It's like I was telling Minako the other day. The parts of ourselves that we lost…we have to figure out how to find them again. If we find them again, then we'll be able to get everything back. Well, not everything, maybe, but…something."

Yosuke opened his mouth, then closed it again. "Oh boy," he said finally, with a little sigh. "Now you're starting to talk like him…come on, work with me, partner, put it in words that a normal guy like me can understand."

For some reason, that made Yu grin. "You're not normal, Yosuke," he reminded him. "No, I have a feeling that you're going to end up being the key to all of this. You're gonna be a hero."

Closing his eyes, Yosuke muttered, "Oh, great. No pressure, right?"

Yu reached up and gave Yosuke a reassuring clap on the shoulder, and looked as though he was about to say something. Then, Yosuke heard the voice, and from the suddenly alert look on Yu's face, he knew that his partner had heard it, too.

"Hey, what happened to Dojima-san" asked Yosuke, aware that the question came far too late, but hoping beyond all hope that someone had a good answer for it, an answer that would make what he knew was about to happen completely impossible.

"He was with Nanako," murmured Yu. "I haven't seen them since-!"

The voice, which sounded so much like Dojima's, suddenly turned into a bellowing roar, and Yosuke heard Nanako shriek in terror from somewhere outside the Velvet Room. There was no more time for conversation. Yosuke turned and ran.

Just before he reached the door, he realized that Yu was frantically wheeling himself along behind. Turning on him, Yosuke shouted, "No, you stay here! You can't help them now, let me do this!"

"My family is out there!" insisted Yu angrily.

Yosuke bit his lip. There wasn't time for tact or grace…not that he'd even been great at either of those things anyway. "You don't have your personas, remember?" he said. "Even if you are hearing voices in your head. Dude, you'll only get killed if you go out there, and then this'll all have been for nothing. Don't be stupid, stay with Igor."

He saw the flinch, and knew that his words had hurt, just the way he'd been sure they would. Angry at himself, but knowing there wasn't any other option, Yosuke left Yu alone in the Velvet Room, and tore through the door to find Nanako and Dojima.

They were both standing stock still when he found them, staring up into the terrifying face of a huge and grotesque shadow policeman, who seemed to have only one yellow eye that was focused down hard on Dojima. Dojima had drawn his gun, and was firing round after round at the shadow, but it wasn't having any effect. The bullets just bounced off, or got absorbed. The shadow shook its head, almost like a disappointed father, and then reached out and smacked Dojima to the ground with the fat fingers of one giant hand.

"Ugh," grunted Dojima, sinking into a prone position.

"Daddy!" screamed Nanako, running over to his side.

For a moment, Yosuke wasn't sure what to do first. Should he check on Dojima? Grab Nanako and pull her to safety? There was only one of him here. What was he supposed to do next?

The shadow policeman, presumably the shadow of Dojima, glared down at him with a familiar expression, and with a start, Yosuke recognized it, somehow, as the same expression that Dojima wore when he'd been forced to get something done early in the morning, without having stopped to have his coffee.

"Takehaya-Susano-o," muttered Yosuke. His persona arrived just in time to deflect the blow that the shadow was swinging at him. Yosuke dodged around, and was just about to fling himself into the attack, when something happened to distract him.

From somewhere to his right, a creature leapt into being. It was a creature out of nightmares, a horrible black monster with coffins coming out of its head and neck, and a vicious looking sword in one hand. He'd seen this creature before somewhere, somewhere other than his creepiest dreams. It was the same creature that had shown up on that card that Nanako had found inside the Velvet Room.

"Nanako, no," he whispered, but it was far beyond too late.

He saw her standing, with anger and tears both streaming out of her eyes, clutching the persona card hard in one hand. "You leave my Dad alone!" she screamed at the policeman shadow. "I won't let you hurt him you big horrible thing! My Dad loves me…and I love him! You can't say anything to make that go away!"

Thanatos attacked. It looked, as far as Yosuke could tell, like an almighty attack. The shadow, unprepared for this ferocity, stumbled back, leaving itself open for Yosuke to follow up with a guest of powerful wind from his own persona. Once it had recovered, the shadow leveled its gun at Yosuke's head, but Nanako sent Thanatos flying at it with his sword outstretched, and the shadow suffered a wound on its arm.

Dojima was still lying there on the ground, his eyes shifting back and forth between Nanako and the shadow. Once, he tried to get up, and began to move himself over in front of Nanako, apparently to protect her. Yosuke shook his head violently.

"Knock it off," he hissed. "You can't do that; you'll only get in the way!"

He'd never spoken to Dojima like that before. The very idea of talking to the scary uncle of his best friend in such a commanding way sent a little chill down his spine, but this wasn't the real world. This was the TV world, and this was a matter of life and death. Even Dojima was going to have to accept that.

"Again! Do it again!" shouted Nanako, pointed at the policeman shadow. Dutifully, Thanatos again brutalized the shadow with an almighty blast, and then followed up with several quick and vicious strikes of its blade.

"Nanako," whispered Dojima, in a combination of awe and horror.

"Don't look," Yosuke advised him. "Just…just don't look at it."

It wasn't long before the battle was over. Nanako and Yosuke, in tandem, made reasonably quick work of the policeman, who obviously hadn't been expecting the wrath of a terrified and enraged Wild Card. The shadow eventually sank to its own knees, panting the same way that Dojima did when he'd been running too long after a perpetrator.

"Daddy," murmured Nanako. The battle light died out of her eyes, and she started shivering. She sunk on to her knees next to Dojima, and buried her face in his shirt, sniffling and sobbing loudly.

"Nanako-chan," began Yosuke, bending over to join the other two on the floor.

"I'm so sorry, Nanako," Dojima was mumbling. "I'm sorry that I wasn't a good enough father. I'm sorry that I ever thought those things about you. It's hard on me, too. I want to be there for you, and I always will, but…there are parts of me that wish there wasn't so much I had to worry about. Watching you grow up, watching you have to face things like…like this. Sometimes maybe I really do wish that it would all go away, and that I could go back to a world where there was less for me to worry about losing. It was like that for me before you and your mother came along."

"So…it's true?" whispered Nanako. "You really don't love me sometimes?"

"Nanako," insisted Dojima, "I'll always love you, all the time. Sometimes I just don't like the things that you've done to my world."

Yosuke looked up and watched the shadow nod just once. He expected it to turn into a card and float itself down into the back of Dojima's mind. He wasn't wrong, either. That's exactly what the newly awakened persona tried to do. Before it reached Dojima, though, the card suddenly stopped, wavered, and then evaporated, leaving nothing behind but a vague sense in Yosuke's mind that something hadn't gone quite right.

Dojima still had his arms around Nanako, and was patting her reassuringly, but there was a look on his face that Yosuke didn't like. Dojima's eyes were open wide, and he was wearing a sort of stunned, dazed expression, as though seeing Nanako for the first time, in a light that he never wanted to see her in again.

"What was that thing?" he asked, and his voice came out in a strangled sort of mutter.

"I…I think it's called Thanatos," said Yosuke. "It's Nanako's persona…she called it. The personas, they sort of sleep inside you, until you summon them, and then-!"

"That thing," interrupted Dojima, "came out of Nanako? It's…it's inside her?"

Not, thought Yosuke, until today. It hadn't belonged to her, it had belonged to someone else, maybe someone who'd hoped she'd use it to keep herself safe. Today, though, it really had become a part of her. Yosuke had seen it disappear again back inside Nanako's little soul.

That thing comes from death, he found himself thinking. It is death. It means death. Minako couldn't use it without inviting death inside of her.

Swallowing hard, he pushed himself back on to his feet. "We…we should go back," he managed to say, forcing himself to sound as normal as he could. "Yu's gonna be waiting for us…I hope."

**Shortly thereafter, inside the Velvet Room…**

"But…I don't get it," Yosuke heard Chie whisper, as the entire investigation team stood around in the Velvet Room and watched over Nanako and Dojima's recovery from their ordeal. "He beat it, right? So…doesn't he get a persona too, now?"

Yukiko shook her head. "Igor says that he can't have one," she reminded her friend. "He says that Dojima-san's mind is resisting it. He's fighting it off. I guess he's too skeptical to have something like a persona. Even if he had to admit to those things that the shadow said, he can't believe that something like a persona could really exist inside of him. Maybe it has something to do with what happens to you when you grow up."

"I don't know," said Chie. "Adachi-san has one, and he's an adult."

Naoto made a derogatory little noise in her throat. "In a manner of speaking, perhaps," she muttered, but left it at that.

Yu was still sitting in his chair, very close to where to Nanako and Dojima were sort of cowering against the Velvet Room wall. As Yosuke watched him, Yu's eyes suddenly met his, and for a brief moment, they exchanged a gaze that Yosuke couldn't help but force himself to look away from first.


	17. Sixteen - Christmas Day

**Author's Note: **I am returned, triumphant! All of my exams have finally been submitted, my show closes tomorrow night, and the doctor says that I can stop taking at least three of my allergy medications, so it looks like I'm going to make it out of this one alive.

The theme for the next couple of chapters is unexpected alliances, since that seems to me to be a very good place to start the second half of this story. I should warn you all that I have done some serious re-plotting, and have changed several things about what I was planning to do with this story. There's a whole new notebook full of plans, so prepare to be surprised!

Thanks every so much for all of your patience, and I hope you enjoy what you read!

**Sixteen – Christmas Day**

After the ordeal in the Velvet Room, the entire collected members of SEES and the investigation team went tramping, un-triumphant, back to the Junes food court to regroup and grab something to eat that would hopefully help bolster their flagging spirits.

That, thought Yosuke, had definitely counted as a mission failure.

He had to admit to himself that he'd never actually believed in what he'd told the others; that bringing SEES in to help and consult would really be the solution to the problem of Yu and Minako's inner minds. Okay, so they'd somehow managed to get Yu back into the Velvet Room, but how? Why? What did that even mean? As far as Yosuke knew, they were just as far from sorting out the truth as they'd ever been before, and now the mysteries were only getting deeper and the ordeals more daunting, since he was sure that he'd probably now have to spend most of his time trying to keep Yu out of the Velvet Room, and thus out of harm's way.

He sighed, frowned, and turned his head to say something to Chie, who was sitting next to him at the table and chatting animatedly with Akihiko. As he shifted position, Yosuke noticed, out of the corner of his eye, that Nanako's attention was focused across the food court at something, and that she was looking pretty upset. He followed her gaze, and found himself staring at the hunched and dejected figure of Dojima, sitting alone at a far table, staring blankly down into a bowl of something he hadn't touched.

Jeez, thought Yosuke. Like we really needed to drag someone else into this mess.

He was just turning back to say something vaguely comforting to Nanako when someone else pulled a chair out from the table and starting crossing over to Dojima. Yosuke scowled as he watched Junpei make his way over to the older man's table. Crap, he thought, seriously, what the hell was that guy up to? Like he really needed to get involved in this one…he'd probably just end up making it worse.

Then again, reflected Yosuke, with a hint of malice that he wasn't too sure he was proud of, it might be kinda fun to watch Junpei getting reamed out by Dojima.

"Who are you?" asked Dojima blankly, as Junpei sat down in a chair across from him.

Junpei blinked in surprise. "Wait, what? What do you mean, who am…come on, Dojima-san, I'm at the station like every other day. All the time. We've even…aw, forget it, I guess it doesn't matter." He sighed. "Name's Iori. I'm a friend of Minako's, remember? I work for old man Daidara."

"Oh," mumbled Dojima. "Right." Glancing down at his bowl again, he pushed it aside. "What do you want?"

"How you feeling?" asked Junpei.

Yosuke blinked. There was a lot of unexpected sensitivity coming from that guy. He should have been impressed, but for some reason, he just felt annoyed. After all, his conscience reminded him, he should have been the one who was asking after Dojima's health. If anyone knew about the side-effects of meeting a shadow self, it was Yosuke. He should have been on that long before Junpei got to it. He felt his face flush hot under the embarrassment of watching his sworn enemy show more tact and care than he'd managed to pull out of himself.

"I'm fine," Dojima grunted.

"Yeah?" asked Junpei. "Well, uh, that's good. Because, see, Yosuke and Minako told me that sometimes, after you run into a shadow like that, and all, it kinda sucks. Feels like shit, actually, and makes you real tired and sluggish. Guess you're a little stronger than the rest of us…probably because you're older, and you're more of a-!"

Dojima mumbled something under his breath, and just for a moment, Yosuke thought he saw Dojima sway forward as though he was going to plant face-first right into the table. Junpei's hand shot out and caught him by the shoulder to push him upright again.

"Damn," muttered Junpei, shaking his head. "It's just like Minako says…you're too stubborn for your own good. The hell would it hurt you say you're feeling sick? Maybe one of the guys can help get you home. I've even got my car here, and-!"

"I'm fine," growled Dojima, shaking his head emphatically, and then wincing slightly under the pain that gesture apparently caused. "I can't leave Nanako here alone. What if that 'shadow' thing tries to…ugh." He bit down hard on his lip, and crumpled into the chair again.

Standing up, Junpei walked around until he was right next to Dojima's chair. Without waiting for or asking for permission, he got an arm under Dojima's arm, and started hauling the older man on to his feet.

"I'm gonna tell you something right now, sir," he began, as he and Dojima began walking haltingly off towards the parking lot. "All of this bravado and shit? It's not gonna do you any good. This shadow-fighting stuff doesn't get any easier, so you'd better get used to pacing yourself now, or you're gonna be dead, and then it's gonna be all of us looking after Nanako."

Unexpectedly, Dojima snorted out a laugh. "Well, at least you're honest," he mumbled, before their voices trailed off and they disappeared around the corner.

Yosuke followed them with his eyes until they were totally out of sight, feeling conflicted and uncertain. There was a part of him, an irrelevant and malicious part that was insisting he following after them to make sure that Junpei didn't have any nefarious plans when it came to Dojima. There was no reason, of course, for Yosuke to assume that Junpei was planning to do anything, but what if he was wrong? A good leader was the sort of person who could imagine and plan for all of the contingencies. That was always something that Yu had been able to do. It was part of what made him so great in a fight.

"That was an unexpected scene, indeed…don't you think so, Yosuke-senpai?" asked a familiar, soft-spoken voice from somewhere at Yosuke's elbow. He turned around to see that Naoto had sat down in the vacant seat just next to him, and was staring off in the direction that Junpei and Dojima had gone as well.

"Yeah…" agreed Yosuke. "You can say that again."

"Perhaps it is for the best," continued Naoto thoughtfully, "that we allow others, such as Junpei-san, to look after those of our comrades who have suffered through this ordeal. There are, at the moment, more pressing tasks on which we should be focusing the majority of our attention."

Yosuke looked around the food court, and saw that Nanako was deep in conversation with Ken Amada, and that she was giving him a hesitant sort of smile that made it look as though he was at least in the process of cheering her up. Yu's chair was parked in between Yukari and Rise, who looked like they were arguing about something that had Yu himself looking amused.

A good leader, thought Yosuke, was in touch with his whole team, and knew exactly what to do and say in order to raise their spirits and get them back in the game. Sitting there, watching his friends turn to others for help gave him a selfish and unpleasant feeling of being inadequate that had come to be part of Yosuke's daily bread over the past few weeks. At least, he reflected miserably, he was starting to get used to it.

"A resume," intoned Naoto patiently, through and around Yosuke's private thoughts, "of the new developments in the case thus far would likely give us a better insight into the problems were are just now beginning to face. Perhaps you would allow me to raddress them for you?"

"Uh, sure." Yosuke nodded. Naoto always used an insanely large number of big, hundred-dollar words. "Go ahead, what have we got?"

"Well," began Naoto slowly. "It seems, after the confrontation that you witnessed between Dojima-san and his shadow that it is, in fact possible for an individual to meet and to accept his or her shadow self without having that shadow self convert into the form of a persona. As this is the first instance we have come across where the shadow self does not either become a persona, or instead overcome and murder the host, it may be important for us to keep in mind that there are, apparently, other undiscovered possibilities where shadows and personas are concerned."

Yosuke nodded again. She was right, he knew. Even he'd been subconsciously aware that they probably would never know everything there was to know about shadows and personas. Still, even the assumptions they'd made thus far had apparently been wrong, and she was right to draw his attention o it.

"Got it," he said. "What else?"

Naoto went on. "Also," she reminded him, "we are faced with the unexpected discovery that our own Yu Narukami, former investigation team leader, can now re-enter the Velvet Room as he was unable to do directly after the loss of his persona. This development begs the question as to what it is that has changed? His new ability must come from somewhere, and perhaps if we were to discover what the cause is of that ability, we'd be one step closer to a solution that would allow us to seal the door to his and Minako's minds. Getting Minako's opinion on the subject would hardly be amiss, although I confess that will be impossible until we can be sure that Dojima san will stay out of the Velvet Room long enough for us to permit Adachi to return."

"Yeah," agreed Yosuke. "Yeah, don't worry, I've been thinking about that every since we came out here. That has to be the key, right? I mean, the key to fixing Yu's mind up. Something we're doing is working, something is making a difference. Otherwise, he wouldn't be getting his powers back, right? That doesn't sound so crazy in my head."

"It is not crazy at all," agreed Naoto. "I think your achievements thus far are worthy of some commendation, especially since, without your efforts, I am certain that we'd never have made the progress which we are finally beginning to see in our results, even if they are somewhat enigmatic."

It took Yosuke a moment to dissect that one. When he finally did, he felt himself smile.

"Hey," he said, working off of a hunch. "We didn't really need to go over any of that stuff. I mean, we both already know what happened, and what we have to do. You're just trying to cheer me up, aren't you?"

Naoto looked slightly put off, and a little embarrassed. "It…is possible that those were my intentions," she murmured.

Yosuke laughed.


	18. Seventeen - December 26

**Author's Note: **I am going to focus on this story for a couple of updates, so that I can catch it up with **Messiah** and line up the two timelines again. **Messiah** will actually be ending in a few chapters, and it can't do that until some things happen in **Piecekeeping**, so I have to even the two of them out. Not that I'm complaining, I'm excited about some things that I have in store for this story…and I'm looking forward to using some more of Naoto, which I know I haven't done much of in the past.

Please be warned! I will be spending some time today and tomorrow deleting some stories and re-publishing them in collections, to try and make my one-shots and companion pieces easier to find and follow. I'll try to make this as painless a process as possible, but I learned while creating **Disenchanted – The Complete Cho Yanase Continuity** that every time I republish a collection, you all get a hundred "Ari Moriarty updated!" emails in rapid succession. I'm very sorry about that; really, I will make it quick. Thank you for bearing with me, and I hope you enjoy what you read!

**Seventeen – December 26**

After school the next day, Nanako started walking home. About halfway down the familiar street, she found Ken, looking uncomfortable and uncertain as he people that went by.

"Oh, Nanako-chan!" he said as she approached, sounding relieved. "Uh, how was school?"

"Fine, thank you very much," answered Nanako politely. "Um…did you come to walk me home?"

"Yes." Ken nodded, shuffling his feet a bit. "If…if that's okay. Actually, um, Mitsuru-senpai sent me to pick you up from school."

Nanako wrinkled her nose in confusion. "She…sent you? Um…why?"

For some reason, that made Ken look even more uncomfortable. "I think, uh…she was worried that a girl your age shouldn't be walking home alone. Actually, I think she has some other changes in mind as well. We…we should go, okay?"

As Ken turned around and began walking quickly back towards Nanako's home, Nanako struggled on her small legs to keep up. "Wait!" she called. "Hey, slow down! What are you talking about? I always walk home by myself; I'm more than old enough. And what do you mean, 'other changes?'"'

"You'll see, I guess," mumbled Ken.

It didn't take them very long to get back to the Dojima residence, and as soon as they got there, Ken planted himself firmly between Nanako and the front door.

"I'm sorry," he told her, sounding like he really meant it. "This…this wasn't my idea."

Nanako was starting to get really worried. Ken stepped aside, and she pulled the door open, not sure what exactly she should be expecting.

There was a lot of bustle and noise inside the house, which was very unusual especially considering that Dad was always at work at this time of day, and that Big Bro was probably either upstairs by himself, or outside with his friends. Nanako could hear several different voices, all of them female. She barely recognized any of them.

"Hello?" called Nanako, walking inside and looking around. "Um…who's here? Do we have company?"

Then, she saw the persona, and squeaked in surprise. The persona was large, with mechanical looking blue and silver wings, wearing something that looked like a combination of battle armor and a beautiful fairy ballgown. Nanako had definitely never seen this one before, and, after all, it didn't make sense, because personas didn't exist outside of the TV world. Big Bro had had told her that, and so had Yosuke, and Chie, and Yukiko, and…

"Oh, Nanako-chan," murmured Fuuka, stepping out from behind the persona. "I'm sorry, I didn't know you were home. Nanako, this is Juno." She gestured to the persona. "She's my persona."

Nanako's eyes went wide with a combination of awe and admiration. "Oh, wow…" she whispered. "Wow, how do you do that?"

"Hmm?" Fuuka looked startled. "How do I do…oh, you mean, how do I summon my persona outside of the TV?" She shrugged. "It's…not clear. As far as we have been able to tell, our personas aren't exactly the same as yours. They're all the same kind of creature, but…their powers are different. Does that make sense?"

Nanako wasn't entirely sure that it did, and she was just thinking it over when a sharp, commanding feminine voice broke through her thoughts.

"Yamagishi!" called someone from inside the kitchen. "What are you doing out there, daydreaming? We need your assistance, if you would be so kind."

Fuuka winced. "Excuse me," she mumbled, before disappearing back into the kitchen. Curious and slightly concerned, Nanako followed her in, to see Yukari hunched over and diligently dusting off the counter tops, while Mitsuru loomed over her shoulder.

"Oh!" said Nanako.

Both Yukari and Mitsuru turned around when she spoke. "Ah, Nanako-chan, you're home," remarked Mitsuru. "Excellent. Have you brought Amada with you?"

"Amada…" Nanako had to think about that for a moment. "Oh, Ken-san? Yes, he came and helped me walk back from the bus stop. Um…" She wanted to say that really, she could have done it by herself, but Nanako was aware that Mitsuru had probably been trying to help. Besides, the masterful glint in the red-haired woman's eye was a little bit scary. Somehow, Nanako didn't feel too good about the idea of challenging her to a battle of wills.

"Thank you," she said instead. "It was…very kind of you to think of me like that."

Mitsuru nodded approvingly. "You're quite welcome," she said. Mitsuru glanced over at Yukari, who had looked up and stopped dusting when Nanako had walked in. Under the force of Mitsuru's gaze, Yukari ducked her head down again and began dusting at double-speed.

"What are you doing?" asked Nanako, before she'd managed to stop herself and think of a slightly more polite way to phrase the question.

Luckily for her, Mitsuru didn't seem to notice the rudeness. "We are doing to this place what really should have been done months ago," she informed Nanako, with a little sniff of distaste. "This entire home needs a thorough cleaning, dusting, sweeping, and re-organization…actually, Nanako-chan, I'm impressed that you've survived living here so long. Having to reside with the likes of two men, neither of which seem to be able to pick up after themselves is deplorable even to think of…no wonder this home has become so unliveable. Men never seem to have the requisite self-care skills."

Nanako flushed pink. "I do the cleaning at home," she mumbled. "It's my job."

For a moment, Mitsuru opened her mouth, then closed it again, looking slightly flustered. Nanako was almost certain that she heard Yukari stifle a laugh.

"It's fine, Nanako, really," insisted Yukari, coming away from the counter to place a protective hand on Nanako's shoulder. "What senpai really meant was…"

**Meanwhile, at the Inaba shopping district…**

Yosuke and Naoto were walking towards Junes together in contemplative silence. It was time for Yosuke's afternoon shift to start, and he'd stopped into the bookstore on his way to work. Naoto had been there, arguing with the shopkeeper about some sort of special edition novel she'd tried to order. Yosuke had pulled her away with some excuse, and as they'd walked out of the store, the shopkeeper had given him a very relieved and grateful look.

"Hey, Naoto," Yosuke said. "You're really good at solving mysteries, right?"

Naoto gave him a slightly amused glance. "There have been those that have said so, certainly," she murmured, apparently trying to sound modest, and only partially succeeding.

"So…if this was one of your mysteries," Yosuke went on, frowning, "then what would the next step be? I mean, there's gotta be something you do next, once you've got a bunch of clues and have to start putting them together, right?" Yosuke was none too eager to admit that, even after their successful solution of the Inaba murder mystery years ago, he still didn't really consider himself detective material. Still, after the conversation they'd had the day before, it sounded to him as though Naoto, at least, wasn't laughing at him in the back of her mind. Maybe she'd be able to help him figure out just exactly what a leader was supposed to do next.

"Hmm," said Naoto, apparently giving his question the serious thought that he only hoped it deserved. "Well, once the clues have been collected, then it's time for the deductive processes to begin. We must commence with piecing the fragments together and attempting to form them into a cohesive solution."

"Yeah," mumbled Yosuke. "And…what if we don't know how to do that?"

"Then," replied Naoto almost immediately, "we must experiment with multiple possibilities until we locate the one that brings us closest to the solution."

Yosuke blinked at her, not entirely certain what she was talking about. Naoto sighed.

"Trial and error," she clarified. "You're asking me how to go about finding a cure for Yu's injuries, are you not?"

"Uh, yeah, pretty much," agreed Yosuke.

"Then," continued Naoto, "we must consider what exactly it is that Igor told you. As I recall, you informed us that Igor said that Yu's power could only be re-awakened by some act that Yu would himself would have to discover on his own. There is, therefore, something specific and particular that Yu can do to re-awaken his personas, correct?"

Yosuke nodded. "Sounds right," he said.

"So," insisted Naoto, "we must use what we have learned about personas so far to come up with a series of tasks that Yu might be able to perform, each of which might potentially re-awaken his powers. At this point, without any further information, that's the best I think we can do."

Yosuke wasn't sure he liked the sound of that at all. "So…we're gonna use him as a kind of guinea pig? Just…experiment on him till we figure out what works and what doesn't?"

Naoto didn't look any happier than Yosuke did, but she shrugged. "You asked me for my advice," she told him. "I gave it. You have no obligation to comply with my suggestions."

Unfortunately, Naoto was the only one who'd made any actual suggestions since the SEES team had arrived in Inaba days before. It did make some sense after all, thought Yosuke. If what Igor had said was true, and if they were reading it the right way, then there were pieces of Yu that hadn't been discovered yet, pieces that would probably be able to come together and make him whole. If that was the case for him, then it was probably also the case for Minako.

"I'm game," said Yosuke eventually. "Hey, at this point I'll try anything. I'm pretty sure Yu will be on board, too, especially if it means solving this thing before Nanako-chan and Dojima-san get any more involved in it. So, uh…what do you think we should try first?"

Again, it looked as though Naoto had to spend some time thinking about it.


	19. Eighteen - December 26

**Eighteen – December 26**

Yosuke and Naoto found Yu standing around in the grocery department at Junes, looking bored and lost in thought.

"Hey," said Yosuke, clapping him on the shoulder to jolt him out of his daydream. "Great, you're just the guy we were looking for!"

"Uh, wait, what?" Yu frowned. "I'm…not sure I Iike the sound of that."

Naoto smiled. "There is no need for concern. Yosuke-senpai and I were simply discussing the ways in which we might successfully cure you of your mental illness."

Yosuke winced. "Mental illness? That's…kind of a harsh way of putting it."

Shrugging, Yu shook his head. "She's…not wrong," he admitted. "I suppose, when it comes down it, that's really what this is…"

"Indeed," agreed Naoto, nodding emphatically., "The more willing we are to accept the truth for what it is, the easier it will be for us to find a solution to the problem. Now, Yu-senpai." She sat down on corner of one of the produce displays, and crossed her arms over her chest, biting her lip in thought. "Do you remember exactly what happened right before you discovered that you were again able to enter the Velvet Room?"

Now it was Yu's turn to do some difficult thinking. "No, I don't think that I…" He paused, glancing at Yosuke for help. Yosuke just gave him an apologetic look.

"Okay," muttered Yu, taking a deep breath. "Right before I went into the TV, I, uh…oh, I was talking to uncle Dojima in the electronics department."

Naoto nodded encouragingly. "What were you two talking about?"

"Nanako, I think," replied Yu. "Oh, and me. He was worried about something happening to Nanako and me in the TV world, and I promised him that I wouldn't let anything bad like that happen."

Suddenly, Naoto didn't look very enthusiastic anymore. Yosuke opened his mouth to ask her what was wrong, but Yu started speaking again before Yosuke had the chance.

"There were voices in my head," he was saying, "familiar voices…they said, um..'I am thou and thou art I…' something like that. It sounded like the same thing that happened every time I'd make a new social link or be able to summon a new kind of persona."

"I see," murmured Naoto, looking grave.

Yosuke glanced back and forth between her and Yu for a moment. "Wait, you see what?" he asked. "This is good, right? I mean, if Yu's hearing his personas in his head again, then we're probably even closer to figuring this out than we thought! This is a good thing…isn't it?"

Yu and Yosuke both looked at Naoto, who was now shaking her head and staring at the floor.

"You were able to enter the Velvet Room again after that conversation with Dojima-san," she said. "Or rather, after a promise that you made to Dojima-san concerning the safety or yourself and Nanako-chan, correct?"

"That's what I said," agreed Yu.

"Then…" Naoto paused for a moment, looking uncertain. "It seems to me that the only way to re-awaken your powers is to find a way to keep that promise. Perhaps I am mistaken, and that would be…something of a relief, but perhaps the way in which you are to cure your mental injuries is to prove yourself to Dojima-san, and thus to save yourself and Nanako-chan from imminent danger."

"Still good," insisted Yosuke. "Saving's good."

"Yes," murmured Naoto, "but in order to complete our experiment, as it were, it seems that we will have to place either Nanako-chan or Yu-senpai in the sort of danger that he might be able to protect them from. That…may be the solution, unfortunately, to the entire problem."

There was a moment of silence, during which Yosuke and Yu stared at each other, Naoto made a point of not looking anyone in the eye.

"No," said Yu firmy. "Not Nanako. No way."

"Yeah, not a chance," agreed Yosuke. "I mean, that's crazy, the poor kid's been in plenty of danger since she started with her own personas, and stuff. You mean, she has to face something even worse?"

"I won't do it," announced Yu. "It's not an option."

Naoto sighed. "I was sure that you would say that," she informed him. "I…commend your loyalty to Nanako-chan, and quite frankly I can't reasonably condone endangering her myself, but…I fear that there may be no other way to cure you."

Yu's face hardened into familiar, determined lines that made something like pride and trepidation swell up at the same time in Yosuke's heart.

"Then that's it," said Yu quietly. "There is no solution. That's the way it'll have to be."

"Well," began Naoto thoughtfully, "As I said before, perhaps there is one other way…"

**Meanwhile, at the Dojima residence…**

"Yamagishi," instructed Mitsuru., "please have Juno scan the premises of the Dojima estate."

"Estate? Hardly," snorted Yukari, but Mitsuru completely ignored her.

"Um…okay," mumbled Fuuka. "But…scan it for what, senpai?"

"Anything," snapped Mitsuru. "Rodents, pests, large piles of debris…anything."

Yukari and Fuuka exchanged a knowing look.

"Senpai," began Yukari carefully, "You've…never actually cleaned anything before, have you? I mean, I know that you've got maids at home, so…"

"And what exactly is your point?" demanded Mitsuru imperiously.

Nanako would have backed off, if Mitsuru had made that scary face at her. Yukari, on the other hand, seemed totally unphased. Wow, thought Nanako, genuinely impressed. Yukari was really cool!

"Well," continued Yukari, "You don't actually have to use a persona to find stuff like that. I mean…nobody else does. Personas are pretty much good for fighting shadows, and…well, for figuring stuff out about shadows. For rats and mice, you use traps, and you don't need to if there aren't any signs of them. Usually rats and mice leave droppings, and little piles of-!"

"And," interrupted Fuuka eagerly, "We haven't found anything like that while we've been here, so I don't think there's any need to-!"

"We must be exceptionally thorough," barked Mitsuru, driving both of the other two women back into patient silence. "There are children living here, and children require a safe and clean environment unlike the one we found when we entered this home for the first time. I do not think that I am amiss in assuming…

"Excuse me," said Nanako, as loudly and boldly as she could. "But…does my dad know that you're here?"

That made even Mitsuru blink and close her mouth for a moment.

"Because," added Nanako, "I don't think he'd be too happy if he found out that some other people he didn't know where messing around in house and with his kitchen, so…maybe you should leave."

For a moment, everyone stared at Nanako. Out of the corner of her eye, Nanako was aware of Ken gazing at her with something that looked almost like admiration in his eyes.

Then, mercifully, Mitsuru's phone rang.

"Hello?" she asked, bringing it to her ear. Someone said a few unintelligible words on the other end, and Mitsuru nodded to herself as she listened. "Understood," she said eventually, before hanging up the phone and placing it back into her pocket.

"Who was that?" asked Yukari.

"Shirogane," Mitsuru informed her. "We have new instructions."

"Instructions?" asked Fuuka. "What kind of instructions?"

Nanako didn't think that Mitsuru seemed like the sort of woman who would be too eager to follow "instructions." As far as Nanako could tell, Mitsuru was the one who made the rules, not the one who listened to them.

"We are to hold our post," began Mitsuru, "until we hear otherwise from either Hanamura, Shirogane, or Narukami. For the sake of the investigation, under no circumstances are we to allow-!"

She stopped talking suddenly as they all heard the sound of the front door opening. Dad's familiar footsteps clomped their way across the floor until he appeared in the kitchen, looking confused and tired.

"What…what are you all doing here?" he asked wearily. "What's going on?"

Nanako and Ken exchanged a look.

"Welcome home, Dad," murmured Nanako, unsure of what else she could possibly say.

**Meanwhile, inside the TV world...**

"No, seriously, I don't like this at all," complained Yosuke, for what was probably the third or fourth time since they'd enter the TV.

He and Naoto were standing just inside the Velvet Room door, peering out at the landscape of the TV world beyond. A few feet in front of them, just far enough away to be unreachable, Yu was sitting in his wheelchair, hands clenching and unclenching nervously in his lap as all three of them waited for…something.

"He's totally vulnerable out there!" insisted Yosuke. "I mean, he's got no way to defend himself, or anything! What are we gonna do if something comes out and attacks? He's like a sitting duck! What kind of friends does that make us?"

Naoto didn't look too much happier than Yosuke did, although she was clearly trying to put a bold face on the situation. "That's exactly what we are hoping will happen," she reminded him. "It seems to me as though the only way for Yu-senpai to regain his powers is for him to keep his promise to Dojima-san, and therefore to prevent either him or Nanako-chan from falling victim to any serious harm. Placing Nanako-chan in danger is out of the question, and so we have no choice but to wait and see if Yu himself can muster the ability to protect himself in a moment of dire need."

"Yeah," muttered Yosuke, "but what if we're wrong? What if he can't?"

Naoto sighed. "In that case," she assured him, "then we will step in before the situation devolves beyond our control. That's why we are watching here, is it not? To make sure that nothing terrible actually happens."

Yosuke gritted his teeth to keep himself from saying something nasty. Naoto had, of course, a really good point. She usually did. When she'd proposed the idea to Yu, he'd been eager to give it a try, and before Yosuke had really had time to think things through, they'd been hoisting Yu's chair through the TV set.

There were a lot of problems with what was going on right now, thought Yosuke. He was conflicted in more than just a few ways. A good leader, he knew, was willing to try anything to get the job done, and a good leader would take risks for the sake of his team. Yu was a good leader, and Yu was taking a huge risk.

Yosuke, however, just for the moment, suddenly found that he didn't give a shit about leadership or anything like that. Right now, he wanted to be a good friend, and there was no way in hell that a good friend would let something like this go down, and just stand by to watch.

"Hey, come on," he began. "Hasn't this gone on for long enough? Look, nothing's coming, so why don't we just-!"

A sound, which was something like a cross between a snarl and a groan, erupted from somewhere behind Yu's head. Yu, Naoto, and Yosuke all turned around to watch as something huge, dark, and dangerous looking lumbered out and glared down at Yu's immobile form with hungry, yellow eyes.

"Ah," murmured Naoto, her voice coming out just a little bit shakier than Yosuke had hoped it would. "Well, then...this will be the test."

"No way," muttered Yosuke, as the shadow bore down on Yu. "No way, this…this is way too much."


	20. Nineteen - December 26

**Nineteen – December 26**

"Oh, um, Dojima-san" stammered Yukari, glancing over at Mitsuru as though expecting her to intervene.

Mitsuru, however, much to Nanako's surprise, looked at something of a loss for words. Glancing back and forth between Mitsuru and Dad, Nanako realized that there was definitely something about them that felt and seemed the same. She wasn't sure entirely what it it was, but it probably had something to do with that scary, determined look that they could both get on their faces when they were sure that they were right about something. She'd seen that look from Dad more than a million times, and she'd seen it just now when Mitsuru had been lecturing her on kitchen cleanliness. Maybe, thought Nanako, just maybe, Mitsuru and Dad would actually like each other, if given half a chance. Then again, she reflected, seeing the very worried look that had appeared on Ken's face, maybe it was better if she didn't wait long enough to find out.

Whatever the case may have been, Nanako decided, it was probably a good time for her to step in and prevent things from getting out of control. That was definitely her job when Big Bro wasn't around, and she wasn't sure where he was, so…

"Um, isn't it nice, Dad?" asked Nanako, putting on her sweetest and most positive smile. "Mitsuru-san, Yukari-san, and Fuuka-san are helping me clean the kitchen! Cleaning goes faster with more people, right?"

Yukari blinked at Nanako, and opened her mouth silently as though she wasn't sure what to say next.

"Wow, Nanako-chan," murmured Ken, looking genuinely impressed.

Dad frowned at Mitsuru and Yukari, then shrugged. Fuuka's persona, Nanako noticed, had quietly disappeared sometime in the last few minutes.

"Okay," said Dad. "Uh…then, thanks, I guess. It's hard on Nanako, having to do all the chores by herself. Nice of you ladies to help out."

Dad's gaze fell on Ken for a moment, and all of a sudden Dad was glaring again, and Ken took a step back, almost bumping into Fuuka in the process.

"Who are you?" asked Dad sharply.

Ken swallowed. "K-ken Amada, sir," he stammered. "I'm…I'm a friend of Minako's, and…" he shot a glance at Nanako, then added, in a slightly more confident voice, "of Nanako's."

Dad's glare didn't soften even a little bit. In fact, thought Nanako, it may have gotten even meaner.

"Fine," muttered Dad after a long, awkward moment. "Just…keep your hands where I can see them, understand? She's only nine."

Ken's face turned white. "Uh…wh-what are you talking about?" he squeaked.

Yukari, for some reason that Nanako didn't quite understand, suddenly dissolved into a fit of laughter that she ineffectively tried to hide by covering her mouth one hand shaking hand.

"Um," asked Nanako, turning to Fuuka for some sort of guidance. "What's going on?"

Fuuka just shook her head. "He's a good father," was all she said, gesturing in Dad's direction.

Nanako was just about to ask more questions when Mitsuru's cell phone rang again, and everyone stopped to watch as she pulled it out and held it to her ear

"Hello? Ah, Shirogane-kun, this is…excuse me? What?"

Nanako didn't have to hear what Naoto was saying on the other end. She couldn't make out the words, but for some reason Naoto was shouting and panicky. That scared Nanako more than any words would have been able to do. Naoto did not shout, and was never, ever panicky. Something must be horribly wrong.

"Yes. Yes. I understand," said Mitsuru curtly, before quickly hanging up the phone and shoving it back into her pocket

"What's happening?" asked Nanako. She had a terrible, sinking feeling in her chest, and was suddenly very anxious to know where Big Bro was right now. Had he been with Naoto? She didn't think so, but she wasn't sure. She didn't know where he was. "Is it Big Bro?" she insisted. "Is he in trouble? Where's Yosuke?" Yosuke, she knew, would come up with a plan. He'd figure something out, because he was the leader, and he was Big Bro's best. Best friends looked out for each other.

So, said a little voice in the back of her mind, do families. Families were supposed to help and protect each other, but she hadn't even called Big Bro all day. He was hurt, and couldn't walk, and she was supposed to be his family, but she didn't even know where he was.

"We're needed in the TV world," barked Mitsuru, as Yukari, Fuuka and Ken all headed at the same time for the door. "Yamagishi, you are to go instantly to the Junes food court, locate Kujikawa and head for the Velvet Room. Takeba, you're with me. Amada, please accompany Nanako-chan to the-!"

"Nanako isn't going," growled Dad.

Everyone stopped in their tracks and turned to stare at him.

"It is true," murmured Mitsuru, "that I have not been very clear. Narukami is in danger. He has encountered an unexpectedly large and powerful shadow in the TV world. Hanamura and Shirogane are with him, but there is some concern that the two of them alone will be insufficient to defeat or ward off the enemy. Our presence is needed, immediately. It is not a matter for argument."

That, as far as Nanako was concerned, was that, and she and Ken again started off together for the door.

"I said you're not going, Nanako, called Dojima. "Come back here. Right now."

Nanako turned around in genuine surprise, to find Dad standing and staring at her with a strange and very scary look on his face. There was something wrong with him, something in his eyes that she hadn't' seen in them before. He looked distant, lost, and angry at the same time, and there something about the way he was looking at her that made her feel like he wasn't seeing her at all, but that he was looking right through her and seeing someone or something else that wasn't really there.

"Dojima-san," murmured Fuuka. "Yu's in danger…you don't understand."

"I understand," muttered Dad. "I understand that I don't want to lose my whole family to this shadow crap. Yu's a grown man, he can make his own decisions, and there isn't shit that I can do about it, but…Nanako's just a kid. I'm not gonna let her throw herself away like he's gonna do."

"But what about Big Bro?" asked Nanako incredulously. "He needs our help! I'm a good persona user, I've got lots of powers! I can save him! I know I can, Dad! I'm good at magic!"

"I don't care," replied Dojima, looking away. "You're too young."

Nanako tried to catch Dad's eye again, but he wouldn't look at her, no matter what she did. Mitsuru, Fuuka, Yukari and Ken were all staring at them, holding their breath as though waiting for something to explode. Nanako thought about Big Bro, waiting for her to come and rescue him, and realized that they were wasting a lot of time. Why didn't Dad get it? Why was Dad turning this into some sort of stupid parent thing? It wasn't time for a stupid parent thing, this was serious! Big Bro could die!"

"You don't care about Big Bro," Nanako mumbled, with angry, disappointed tears starting to well up in her eyes. "You don't love him anymore…"

"Nanako-chan," began Dad, but Nanako didn't want to hear it. She was getting more and more furious by the minute, unable to stomach the idea that her own father didn't care about his family the way she'd always thought he was supposed to.

Turning on her heel, she rushed towards the door, and heard Ken's footsteps behind her, hurrying to keep up. Just before opening the door and running out into the street, Nanako looked back over her shoulder and glared at her Dad with a horrible feeling of awful disappointment growing inside of her by the minute.

"I hate you," she told him. Then she and Ken were gone.

**Meanwhile, just outside the Velvet Room…**

"What the hell is up with this thing?" shouted Yosuke, as he and Naoto did their best to form a protective ring around Yu's chair. "Is it just me, or are the shadows getting bigger and badder every time we have to kill one? I mean, this is just nuts…I thought only the Velvet Room shadows were this scary looking."

He dodged to one side as the massive shadow slashed at him with one of its four sets of claws.

"Megidolaon" announced Naoto in that clear, commanding voice she had whenever things got out of control. Yamato-Takeru performed the almighty attack, and Yosuke was pretty sure that the attack hit, at least a little bit, although the giant shadow only flinched for a moment and then lunged forward into a fresh attack, apparently not nearly injured enough to be down for the count.

"Shit," muttered Yosuke. "What are we gonna do?"

"The others are on their way," Naoto informed him, a bit breathlessly. "I have spoken to Mitsuru-senpai and to Rise-chan, and I am certain that-!'

Footsteps pounded against the ground behind them, and Yosuke swung around just long enough to see Chie, Teddie, Kanji, and Rise running towards them through the open Velvet Room door.

"Oh my god!" breathed Rise. "What is that thing?"

"You tell me!" shouted Yosuke, hurling himself backwards before launching his best attempt at an attack. "And somebody get Yu out of here!"

As Yosuke hurled himself forward into his best attempt at a physical attack, Chie ran around him and grabbed Yu's chair, pushing it away again and out of harm's way. Yosuke risked a glance over his shoulder in order to watch the two of them leave, and the farther away Yu and Chie got from the shadow, the better and better he found himself feeling.

"Wait!" Yu was saying, as he and Chie left the scene. "What about Yosuke and the others?"

"Don't worry about them, they'll be fine," Chie assured him.

For just a moment, Yosuke and Yu's eyes met, and Yu bit his lip in frustration. Yosuke just nodded at him, trying to reassure him that he had this, and that he knew what the next step was. In reality, he didn't, but that didn't matter. He'd already gotten his partner out of harm's way. Now he had to focus on figuring out how to get the rest of them out of there as alive and in as few pieces as possible.

"Oh!" called Rise, apparently having finished her scan of the shadow. "No, it's okay! This one's easy! It's weak to fire!"

Fire, thought Yosuke. Great All they'd have to do, then, was…

"Where the hell is Yukiko?" he asked.

There were more footsteps sounding from the direction of the Velvet Room, and then SEES appeared, led by Mitsuru with sword in hand and eyes flashing. Junpei was there too, and Yosuke didn't even have a chance to register any feelings about that before Junpei had rushed up alongside Yosuke, and was bringing his evoker up to his head.

"Don't worry about it," Junpei assured them. "I got this."

Junpei's persona shot out of him, and unleashed an inferno of flames that engulfed the shadow and singed it ruthlessly. Yosuke held his breath, hoping it would go down, but when the flames dissipated again, the shadow was still standing. It had clearly been hurt, although not nearly badly enough. Now, it just looked angry.

"Crap," muttered Yosuke.

"Aw, come on!" shouted Junpei. "I thought you said it was weak to fire!"

"I did!" insisted Rise. "Fire's the only thing that will work on it, but um…I guess you're going to have to do better than that! Don't you have anything stronger?"

"Stronger?" shouted Junpei. "Seriously? 'Something stronger,' says the girl whose persona can't even freaking fight!'"

"Hey!'" shrieked Rise angrily. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Yosuke thought of Nanako, and of her first persona, Icarus. They needed Nanako now, so that Junpei and Nanako could take turns burning the shadow until it finally went down.

He'd barely even had time to finish forming the thought in his mind before he heard Nanako running out of the Velvet Room at a breakneck pace. "Big Bro!" she called. "Big Bro, I'm coming!"

"Nanako!" shouted Dojima, close on her heels. "Stop this! Nanako, get back here!"

What the hell, thought Yosuke. Of all the stupid times for a family feud…


	21. Twenty - December 26

**Author's Note: **Finally, the moment you've all been waiting for!

Now, I do have to let you know that in order to see the rest of this scene, you're going to have to read the next chapter in **Messiah**. I believe the chapter that you are looking for is **Twenty Seven – December 26.** I have not uploaded it yet, but keep an eye out for it if you're interested in seeing the rest of this encounter.

If not, **Piecekeeping** will pick back up again directly after that encounter ends, so you can keep reading without any dramatic breaks.

**Twenty – December 26**

Yosuke and the others watched in a combination of relief and alarm as Nanako rushed forward and planted herself right in front of the shadow. Dojima tried to follow her, but Yu grabbed him by the arm and attempted to hold him back.

"What are you doing?" he asked, dropping the formality he usually used with his uncle in the heat of a panicked moment. "Are you out of your mind? Stay away from that thing!"

"Nanako!" shouted Dojima, struggling and ultimately freeing himself from Yu's grip. Yu looked to Chie for help, and Chie, who really was, Yosuke reflected, a hell of a lot stronger than she looked held on to Dojima's shoulder and forced him to back himself up against the wall.

"Let go of me," shouted Dojima. "That's my daughter out there, my only daughter!"

"Hey, Nanako-chan," said Junpei, "you've got Icarus still, right? Can you call it? I want you to try something with me."

Nanako obediently summoned Icarus, and she and Junpei began, as intended, their double-barreled fire assault on the shadow. Teddie and Ken stood by, prepared to cast any necessary healing spells at a moment's notice. Yosuke and the rest of the team almost instinctively stepped back.

"What the hell is going on here?" asked Yosuke, still able to hear Dojima's angry bellows from where Chie was doing her best to quiet and restrain him. "Why'd Dojima-san go all crazy all of a sudden?"

Yukari frowned, shaking her head. "I don't know," she admitted. "We were all at Nanako-chan's house when you called us. Nanako rushed out with the rest of us to come and help, but Dojima-san got really angry and told her that she needed to stay behind, even if it meant that Yu got hurt in the meantime."

Yosuke felt something twist angrily inside of him. "He said what?"

"Then Nanako-chan," continued Yukari, her eyes still on the shadow battle taking place not two feet away from them, "started screaming that Dojima-san didn't love Yu anymore, and that she hated him. She ran out, and we went with her, and…I guess Dojima-san came chasing after."

Yosuke, too, was having trouble focusing on the story while avoiding blows from the shadow and keeping as much of an eye on Nanako as he could at the same time. Still, he felt himself getting angrier and angrier the more he thought about what Yukari was saying. No wonder Nanako had freaked out. Dojima-san didn't care if Yu got hurt? That didn't make sense. Maybe he was a bit of a pain in the ass when it came to rules and regulations, and maybe he'd never really understood what Yosuke and his friends were actually trying to do during the Inaba murder case, but Dojima was supposed to be an ally. He was supposed to be on their side. Was he really as soulless as all of that? Did he not get what was at stake, here?

"You guys still don't' get it," shouted Junpei, in between bursts of flame. "Guy watched his nephew die. Now he finds out that there's some crazy other world that could kill his only daughter, too. There's no way he's being rational right now. Can you blame him? He's not a persona user, like us. He's not used to all this shit…not that there's ever any real way to get used to it. Like watching someone die or risk their life ever gets any easier…cause it doesn't. Maybe he's the only one of us crazy hero-complex sacks of shit that has the right idea. You know?"

"How the hell can you say that?"

"How can you not?" retorted Junpei." You're as stupid as you look if you're sure that we're all gonna make it out of this alive. Being a leader's about facing the facts, man. Sometimes it's about making sacrifices. Dojima-san gets that, even if you don't. She's his daughter. He doesn't want to lose her."

"So he's okay with losing the guy he's raising as his son?" asked Yosuke through gritted teeth.

Junpei was quiet for a moment. "There are people in the world you'd lose everything for," he said eventually. "It sucks, but that's the way it is. Maybe you'll grow up someday and get what that means."

Yosuke clenched his fists. "No way," he muttered. "I'm never gonna be that guy."

Suddenly, Junpei looked him straight in the eyes, and Yosuke had to stop himself from taking a wary step back at the cold, empty look on Junpei's usual casual face.

"You know what?" he spat. "I think you're right. You never will."

Junpei's gaze broke away from Yosuke's, and Yosuke found himself standing there with a very strange and unwelcome feeling in his gut, as though he'd just seen deeply into the middle of something awful and ancient that he neither understood or wanted to understand.

From behind Yosuke, Chie was crying for help. "Hey, guys!" she shouted. "Please, I really need some backup here!"

Yosuke turned around and saw that she was really struggling with Dojima. For the briefest moment, he thought about calling out to her to just use her persona to knock Dojima out for a while, or for just long enough o let them take care of the problem. Then he hated himself for even thinking those thoughts, and found himself looking involuntarily back at Junpei. Junpei just raised an eyebrow at him, and went back to fighting.

"I'm coming, Chie-senpai!' called Naoto, heading back in the direction where Chie and Yu were still standing.

Yu, Yosuke realized, was looking back and forth between Nanako and Dojima, and there was something closed and angry about the look on his face that sent a little shiver down Yosuke's spine and across his shoulders.

"Hey," he began.

Yu's lips moved, and although he was too far away for Yosuke to hear, Yosuke recognized the syllables of the word "persona."

"Wait, Wha-?" demanded Yosuke.

Then, Yu stood up.

For Yosuke, time seemed to stop. He was aware, of course, that Nanako, Junpei, and the two healers were still actively in the process of taking down the giant shadow, but for a few moments, that was nothing but background noise. Yu was standing up, pushing his chair away from him, and then something large and blue-tinted shot out of him, shaking it's fists in the air and whirling around on the giant shadow with determination and calm, controlled vengeance in its eyes.

"My god," whispered Naoto. "Zao-Gongen, the persona representing strength. Manifestation of patience, control, compassion, and stability."

"Why do you know all this stuff?" asked Yosuke.

Naoto shrugged "When I became a persona user, I did the appropriate research. Didn't you?"

The blue persona, apparently Zao-Gongen, stepped forward.

"Agidyne," mouthed Yu.

Zao-Gongen attacked. The world sped up again for Yosuke, and as the battle continued to rage full-force, Yu ran forward to join the others, his eyes blazing with the same fire that was coming in impressively focused bursts from the figure of his newly awakened persona.

After that, the battle didn't take much longer. Between Yu, Nanako, and Junpei, the shadow did eventually, erupt into a black and red gust of shadow essence, leaving SEES and the investigation team to stand around and stare at the newly healed Yu Narukami, who was now breathing heavily in the middle of the room as his persona disappeared, returning to the inside of his soul.

No one moved for a long moment, as though worried that breaking the spell would suddenly ruin the magic that had apparently happened in the midst of the fight.

Then, Nanako broke the silence.

"Big Bro!" she squealed, throwing herself at him and wrapping her arms around him in the biggest and most enthusiastically warm hug that Yosuke had ever seen. "You're okay! You're okay again! Yaaaay!"

Yu bent down to kiss Nanako on the top of the head, and when he straightened back up again, Yosuke stepped forward and reached out to put a hand on his shoulder, looking directly into his face.

"You…wait, are you…?" askd Yosuke.

Yu nodded. "Yeah," he said. "It's okay."

He grabbed Yosuke's arm in a gesture of thanks that had Yosuke grinning all over his face in a matter of moments. Then, all hell broke loose.

The rest of the team all closed in on Yu at the same time, chattering, babbling, asking every question they could think of and hugging him over and over again. It took Yu several minutes to extract himself from the throng of well-wishers. When he finally did, he turned back to Yosuke.

"You did this," he said to Yosuke. "I couldn't have done it without you."

"Nah," muttered Yosuke, feeling strangely embarrassed all of a sudden." Actually, the whole thing was Naoto's idea…although it looked like it wasn't gonna work for a few scary minutes there, gotta admit."

Naoto cleared her throat, looking a bit sheepish as well, and Yu grinned at them both.

"Big Bro," murmured Nanako. "Um, what about…?"

Yu nodded at her, then turned to look up at Dojima, who was on his own now that Chie had rushed down to join the rest of her friends. Yu took a few strides away from the group, closing the distance between him and his uncle.

"Y-you," began Dojima, apparently at something of a loss for words.

Yu gave him a long, searching look. Yosuke couldn't tell what Yu was feeling, but imagined that there must be a whole slew of complex emotions behind that calm façade. He was staring down a man that he loved, whom he respected and trusted almost like a father, and whom he'd just watch try to betray him for the sake of someone else.

"I made you a promise, didn't I?" asked Yu.

"Yeah," mumbled Dojima.

"Well," replied Yu. "I meant what I said. I will never let anything happen to our family. You can be sure of that. I will keep my promise."

With Dojima still standing there, mouth slightly open in shock, Yu left him and went back to his friends.

"You okay?" asked Yosuke. "Do you, uh…want to sit down for a while? I mean, you haven't used your legs in, like…oh, and your persona just re-awakened, so you must be pretty beat."

"Let us go back for today," agreed Mitsuru, nodding. "There has been more than enough excitement, and I believe it would be a good idea to inform Arisato of recent developments. Perhaps this new power awakened in Narukami will help guide her towards some revelation of her own."

"Oh, right!" agreed Junpei. "Yeah, we have to tell her! Maybe there's a clue here. I mean, let's think about it, right? Yu got his powers back because he, uh, kept a promise, I think. So…all Mina-tan's got to do is make a promise, and keep it? Is it really that easy? That doesn't sound right…"

"Let's show Igor," suggested Yu." Maybe he'll have some idea of what this could mean for Minako."

They chatted animatedly as they headed back towards the Velvet Room. Yosuke's head was still spinning from everything that had just happened, but with every step he started to feel a little bit lighter and more secure. The worst was over now. They'd won their victory, they'd saved his partner…and now all that was left was to finish things up and use what they knew to help put Minako back together. After that, everything would go back to the way it had been, and he could go back to being a normal guy, which was something he wasn't even sure how to be anymore. What did 'normal' really mean, anyway?

He was lost in the middle of that puzzling revelation when Yu pushed open the door to the Velvet Room.

"Aw, hell," muttered Junpei. Startled by Junpei's exclamation, Yosuke looked up, and found himself staring into the eyes of Minako and Adachi, who appeared to be in the process of untangling themselves from one another.

Yosuke's mouth fell open, and something in his heart stopped dead.


	22. Twenty One - Collision

**Twenty One – Collision**

After the confrontation with Minako and Adachi in the Velvet Room, Yosuke felt as though he was suffocating on his own anger. His insides felt tight and constricted, and he burst back out of the TV and into the Junes electronics department breathing hard and trying to get the spinning, sick sensation out of his head. One by one, the others tumbled or jumped out after him, and one by one, murmuring to themselves, they wandered out of the store and into the open air. Yosuke couldn't bring himself to follow them. He sat on the floor instead, trying not to think too hard, and waiting for his partner to show up.

For some reason, though, Yu never came.

As Yosuke waited, the thought crossed his mind that something might have happened to Yu, or that he might have gotten stuck behind in the Velvet Room, dealing with some of the aftermath of the argument that had just taken place. His fists clenched at his sides as he wondered just how angry Adachi might have been, and worried that maybe Igor's supposed rules of the Velvet Room wouldn't be strong enough to hold back a crazy killing machine like the thing that Adachi had shown himself more than once to be.

Just as Yosuke was getting to his feet and preparing to head back into the TV to look for his friend, Naoto popped out of the screen and landed, gracefully as always, alongside him.

"Yosuke-kun," she murmured, sounding worried. Naoto never sounded worried. She was epitome of calm, collected control. The worry in her voice made Yosuke stop for a moment and look, really look at her in a way that he hadn't carefully or seriously looked at anyone since he'd seen Minako in Adachi's arms.

"Hey," he mumbled, clearing his throat and trying to get his voice to sound something like the way it usually did. "You okay?"

"I…I'm fine," Naoto assured him, but she didn't look fine. She looked upset, stressed out, and as though there was something on her mind that was trying to force its way through that cool, hard-boiled exterior that everybody was so used to from her.

"You're pissed off about it, too, huh?" asked Yosuke, gritting his teeth. "I guess that whole scene was pretty crazy. Minako and…and Adachi. I'd never…honestly, I guess I should have figured it out before, but I never thought, not for a second that she'd do something like that. I thought we could trust her, I really thought she was one of us, I…"

"Yosuke," interrupted Naoto. "It's…it's not about Minako, or Adachi-san. It…has nothing to do with them."

"Huh?" Yosuke blinked. "Then what's up?"

Unexpectedly, Naoto stared directly at her feet for a long moment before speaking up again. "I am distressed," she said eventually, "to see how much this episode has upset you. It is…difficult for me to watch you in so much pain. Forgive me…it is something of a weakness, but…"

Yosuke shook his head, and gave her a friendly clap on the shoulder. "Oh, really? Nah, that's just you being a good friend. I guess it's always that way when something bad happens to one of your buddies, right? Hey, thanks, though. Means a lot to hear that coming from you. It'll be okay…maybe. Yu's healed now, the whole mess with the shadows is over…stuff's gonna go back to normal, you'll see. We can just forget that any of this crazy crap with Minako and her weird friends ever happened, and…and just live, I guess. So relax."

He said it, but even as he spoke, part of him didn't believe it. The image of Minako and Adachi together kept running through his head, accompanied by the background noise of Adachi's maniacal laughter, and what he still imagined were Saki's terrified screams of protest. Closing his eyes, he tried to shut the pictures out, but even with his eyes closed the images danced along the backs of his lids and through the recesses of his frantic mind, deprived of sleep and rest after so many days and nights of wondering and worrying about Yu, Nanako, and the others.

This, he thought, is what it really means to be a leader. It means never sleeping at night, never being able to relax or have a moment's peace of mind. Hell, it was amazing that Yu had managed to hold up under the pressure for so long. Obviously his partner was a better man than he would ever be…not that it came as such a big shock, anyway.

"At least I'm done being the leader, now," he muttered. "Good riddance…not like I was much of one to begin with."

"I think that you were an excellent leader, Yosuke-kun," murmured Naoto. "You care about people so very much…you devote yourself to them. It is…an admirable quality. I see it so rarely, that kind of genuine loyalty."

There was something about Naoto's voice that still just didn't sound right, but Yosuke couldn't think about it right now. He couldn't think about anything right now, except how badly he wanted not to have to think about things.

"You go on ahead," he told her. "I've gotta wait for Yu. I guess…I guess maybe he's talking to Minako, or something. I don't know. If he's not out in five minutes, I'm gonna-!"

"I'd like to stay with you, if I may," said Naoto.

Yosuke stopped and blinked at her for a moment.

"I-in case, "stammered Naoto suddenly, "we discover that Yu does, in fact, require our help. Two heads and two personas, of course, are better than one…am I correct?"

"Uh…yeah, sure," agreed Yosuke. "Right."

**Meanwhile, on the way to the Dojima residence…**

Dad was pulling Nanako along so hard by the arm that it was beginning to hurt. Nanako winced, and tried to squeeze out of her father's grip, but he didn't relax his hold even a little bit.

"Daddy," whispered Nanako miserably." Please…um…you're hurting me."

Dad came to a sudden stop, jerking Nanako back along with him. He released her, and she massaged her wrist until some of the life started to come back into it.

"You knew, didn't you?" he asked, not looking at her.

Nanako winced. "What?"

"Nanako, look at me." Reaching down, he placed a finger under her chin and turned her face to meet his. "About Adachi. You knew the whole time that he was still alive, didn't you?"

Miserably, Nanako nodded "I'm sorry," she mumbled. "I'm so sorry, Dad…it's all my fault." Tears began to spill out through the corners of her eyes as she gave up on being a big girl and on being far too old and mature to cry. Junpei had cried. Minako had almost cried. Nanako was going to cry too, and it didn't matter whether or not that was really okay. She was completely dejected, and horrified after what she'd just seen happen between her friends, and what made it worse was that she was sure that she was responsible for the whole thing. If only she hadn't kept so many secrets, if only she hadn't decided that she just had to help, if only…

"Nanako," said Dad. His fingers moved from her chin to her cheek, and his voice became gentler as he began to brush the tears away. "It's not your fault. None of this is your fault. How could it be? It's got nothing at all to do with you…it never did. It's my fault for not noticing sooner what all of this was turning into, and for not getting you out before it was too late. You understand? You didn't do this."

"But I did!" bawled Nanako. "I did…I told Minako that Adachi-san really liked her, and I'm the one who helped her get in and out of the Velvet Room, and I'm the one who kept it a secret from Yosuke and the others…I broke everything! But I didn't mean to…I didn't mean to make anyone so angry. I just thought that it would make Adachi-san happy, and he always looked so unhappy, so…"

The tears overcame her, and she gave up and dissolved into floods of sadness. Dad gathered her into his arms and held her there for a few minutes while she snuffled and sniffled into his shirt.

"You were in over your head," muttered Dad, hugging her to him. "You shouldn't have had to deal with any of this. You're just a kid. It never should have been your responsibility in the first place. Nanako, why didn't you come to me when things started getting out of hand? Why didn't you tell me sooner what was going on with the shadows and the Velvet Room? I'm your father, I'm here to protect you, that's my job….why couldn't you have relied on me?"

Wiping the back of her hand across her face, Nanako looked up into her father's eyes, and gave him an accusing look.

"You wouldn't have believed me," she told him frankly.

That seemed to take Dad aback for a moment. "Yeah," he muttered eventually. "Yeah, that's…that's probably true."

They started walking again, and continued on for several minutes before Nanako finally found the courage to ask another question.

"Do you…do you still love me?" she hazarded.

Again, Dad stopped, and again, Nanako had to pull herself up short to stick with him.

"Of course I love you," insisted Dad. "I will always love you. I love you more than anything else in the entire world, more than…more than you can possibly imagine, Nanako. That's the reason I get so angry, it's because I'm scared of losing you. Don't you understand that?"

"But," sniffled Nanako, "when you found out about what Big Bro was doing in the Velvet Room, and how he got hurt, you didn't love him anymore."

Dad winced. "I love your cousin too," he explained quietly. "I love him like he was really your brother. But I can't protect him, you see? I can't force him to stay safe, I can't tell him what to do. He doesn't have to listen to me anymore. His decisions are out of my control, now that he's grown up. I…I don't want to watch him get hurt. It makes me angry, thinking that there's nothing I can do…and then I think of you. I think of my little girl, and how the only thing that I can do that's worth doing in this worth is to keep her safe, even if that means I have to…I have to watch someone else slip away from me. I don't want you to understand that, so…don't try. I don't want you to ever know what feels like."

Nanako nodded. She didn't understand, but he had told her that it was okay not to understand, and besides, he'd said he loved her and Big Bro, so that was more than enough. That was all she had wanted to be sure of, anyway, and the more she thought about it, the warmer and safer she began to feel.

"I don't hate you, Daddy," she told him urgently. "I'm so sorry…"

"Shhh," insisted Dad comfortingly. "Hey, it's okay. It's over now. I forgive you."

The house swung into view in front of them, and Dad reached into his pocket to pull out his keys. Nanako watched him open the door, and they both stepped inside to the newly cleaned kitchen that Mitsuru, Ken, and the others had all been cleaning only hours before.

"Do you think the others will stay, now that Big Bro and Minako are all better?" asked Nanako, as she helped her father put away a few dishes that Yukari had left out after drying them.

Dad shook his head. "Nah," he muttered. "Probably not. Honestly, I hope they all leave…we've had enough excitement and insanity around here. Better if we go back to the way things used to be, just pretend none of this crap ever happened."

That didn't sit quite right with Nanako. She had really enjoyed getting to know the SEES members, and was sad to think of all of them going home again, especially Ken, who she'd hoped would teach her some of how he'd become such a great persona user.

"And…what about Minako?" she asked, aware that she was probably pushing her luck.

Dad had to think about that one for a long moment before he came up with an answer.

"She lied to me," he said finally, and there was an edge to his voice that grated against Nanako's fragile nerves. "That…I don't know. Maybe it would be better if she went with the rest of them."

That, Nanak could not leave alone. "But I lied to you," she protested, "and you said that you still love me."

"'It's different," growled Dad. "You're family."

"But why?" Nanako came around until she was right in front of Dad, standing in his path and preventing him from reaching the counter that he'd just walked over to, presumably to rummage around for some snacks. "Why is it different?"

Dad sighed. Patting Nanako on the head, he adroitly moved her out of his way, and continued reaching for the shelf he wanted.

"There's not a reason, okay?" he explained, or rather didn't explain. "That's just the way it is. Some things just are. Not everything's got a reason."

Nanako frowned as she sank back into a kitchen chair and watched her father work on something like lunch. That couldn't be right, she told herself. This couldn't really be the end. After all, they'd saved the day, hadn't they? Big Bro was better, and Minako was better, and…and the story was supposed to have a happy ending, now that everyone was going to be okay.

She would ask Big Bro about it, she decided, when he got back from the Velvet Room. Better yet, she thought, she would go back to the Velvet Room tomorrow, and talk to Igor. There were still things she wanted to know, and answers she had to find. Because, she told herself, Dad had been wrong about that last thing. Everything did have to have a reason. Otherwise, the world would make no sense, and that was not something that Nanako would ever be willing to accept. It was too frightening to even think about.

**Author's Closing Note: **Oh dear god, what have I done? So many loose ends, so many damaged relationships, so much that needs to be fixed…

Yes, unfortunately this is the end of **Piecekeeping**, as this is the end, more or less, of the Velvet Room shadow epic. This is, however, obviously not the end of the overall story arc, since there are now a million broken pieces and a million broken bonds that have to be put back together. I promise you, I have plotted out and thus intend to fix every single broken thing that I have just destroyed, but I have not decided exactly what story format I am going to use to do that. I feel that the problems I've created here are much more character-driven and intimate, and thus will probably require several short, more focused stories, rather than one giant epic.

If you're interested in seeing how I put the pieces back together, please keep an eye on my page, and check out the stories that I'll begin posting soon. Again, I'm not sure entirely how I'm going to tackle this, but I will tackle it, and relatively quickly, so I hope that you've at least sort of enjoyed the ride so far, and that you're ready, finally, for the next installment in what has become a beloved project of mine.

Thank you very much for reading, it means more to me than I can reasonably express.

And now, if you'll excuse me, after writing the conclusions to both stories in a single Sunday sitting, I am going to pass out. Cheers!


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